Sibling's Serenade
by Strata-Assassin
Summary: (Sequel to Weapon's Waltz) What happened in the two years between Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny. OCs mingled with Gundam SEED timeline. (Rated M for language, violence and sexual content)
1. RPGs, FPSs, and (plus) 10 Wisdom

Hello, everyone! Here's the sequel to _Weapon's Waltz_ that everyone's been waiting for! Well, I hope you've all been waiting for. If not, well, try and enjoy it anyway, okay?

If you haven't read _Weapon's Waltz_ I can't force you to do it, but this story will make a whole lot more sense if you do. If you want the quick version, _Weapon's Waltz_ is a retelling of _Gundam SEED_ with some OCs thrown in to add in some new twists and to make it feel a little fresher. I know many readers don't like OCs, so as a warning, this story has many of them.

As mentioned in the description, this is going to run through the two years in between _Gundam SEED _and _Gundam SEED Destiny_. I have the dates listed before any main shift in location/time so please take note of them. I will be jumping from the past to the present fairly often (the first section of the "present" actually takes place before the very last event mentioned in _Weapon's Waltz_), so just take a quick look at the year. Also, I'm trying to do some recap where I'm able, but I'm not going to be doing everything, of course. Just note that I might be referencing events that had happened back in _Weapon's Waltz_.

Well, I'll stop babbling and let you all get to the story. Enjoy!

* * *

RPGs, FPSs and +10 Wisdom

_CE 65: Scandinavia_

It was just one of those days; make faces in the mirror bored, kick the dog angry, and throw a rock through a window adventurous. Namarra had done all but kick a dog, not even the one that its owner sent after her when she threw the rock through the window. Only cruel people hit animals and besides, Namarra liked dogs. Actually, the girl had a secret tendency to associate people with those furry things.

Don't laugh, she'd get pissed and call you a Shih Tzu.

Well, the boy she threw the rock at deserved what he got anyway. He was four years older than the young eight-year-old and was actually friends with Namarra's older brother Kai.

One of his damned flunkies to be exact.

The boy was obsessed with video games—no sleep for three days at a time obsessed. He called her a White Mage as she was walking back from the fruit market. Honestly, she had no idea what that was, but it sounded offensive so she picked up a rock and threw it. Blame her for the temper, but not the good aim. There's nothing a person can do about raw talent. Now she was on her way home to await her lovable brother.

And most likely tell him what happened.

Shit.

The day was not going well.

She and her brother didn't live in the greatest area of town by a typical Scandinavian's standards but it was warm, the people minded their own business and the back window had a view. Sure, the window was too high to clean it properly and the spiders liked to reside there, but the bottom half was _always_ clean. Often, Namarra missed the house her parents used to own, but two orphans couldn't afford such a home as one gifted by the Scandinavian Science Academy. Thanks to their parents' research, the kids had been living quite well.

But of course, good things don't last forever.

"Kai, I threw a rock at Clotho's window, I hope you don't mind," she yelled once she turned the key in the lock. The home was a modest one story with a kitchen, living room and bedroom. There was also a basement, but it was the moldiest-smelling place in the world so Namarra avoided it. Only Kai went down there to grab some food out of the freezer they shared with two other neighbors. The kids were only allowed a small amount of chicken and beef a week, but at least their rice, bread, and vegetables were constant.

"I said, I hope you don't mind." Namarra stepped further through the door and gave a sigh. Kai wasn't home yet from his job as an errand boy, but at least now she could say she told him. It was his fault he wasn't there to listen.

Kicking off her shoes, she ran to the bathroom to grab a hair tie, threw her black locks up in a bun then put some water in a pot to start boiling. "Rice for dinner again," she muttered, looking in the fridge to see if there were any green beans left. "Score," she said, grabbing the bag of fresh ones on the top shelf. Filling another pot with water, she went to the dining table to wait for them to start boiling. Lying there were a couple of books and pieces of paper, her homework for the weekend. Schooling was free so Kai and Namarra attended the nearby establishment, just under a different last name. After all, they would be split up and thrown into the system if anyone found out they were truly living on their own. An eight-year-old and a twelve-year-old—no matter what intelligence level—couldn't run a house all on their own.

She hadn't gotten far into her homework and was actually scratching an itch on the bridge of her nose with her pencil when the stove sizzled as the water boiled over. It startled her so much the eraser slipped to the side and into her eye. "Ow!" After rubbing the injured green eye, she put down the pencil and jumped over to the stove, turning down the fire before putting the green beans in one and the rice in the other. Making note of the time, she went back to her work.

She hoped Kai would be home soon because that night was movie night. Once a week the neighbors would invite them over to watch a movie with their kids. Actually, those same neighbors drove them to school, bought them clothes, and did pretty much everything a real parent would do. The thing was, they never let them stay in their house long term. Namarra admitted she loved them like parents sometimes, but the fact that they kept their distance made the young Natural realize that they were only doing it because they felt sorry for her and her brother, not because they genuinely wanted to support them.

Namarra looked up from her books when the front door handle jiggled. She tensed and looked over at the nook between the counter and the refrigerator. There was bat wedged in there, but it being so close, she decided to wait and see who it was.

The handle jiggled again.

A key turned.

The door opened.

"Nam, I think I need to do some work on this door again. Did it open easy for you?" Kai was tall for his age, a little over five and a half feet, but had the face of a baby. Namarra would remember how their father had gotten teased for such a face—their wavy black hair looking just a step older than a baby's fine locks—and if it wasn't for his height, Kai would as well. Because he was so tall though, however, he could pass for an older kid, which worked out in their favor.

"Yeah, it worked just fine," Namarra responded, relaxing back into the chair. "I think it's just you."

The boy shrugged and took his glasses from his nose, rubbing his amber eyes as he dropped a bag down on the table next to her books.

"What's that?" she asked before he had time to say anything.

"Some more hand-me-downs from the Buers. Nothing of Clotho's fits me anymore, but Jasmine's still around your size. You'll have to try them on later."

Namarra nodded and shrunk down in the chair. If he had talked to Mrs. Buer, that meant he knew about the window.

"Now, I have to change." He pulled at the hem of his grey uniform. It was too short for him and was fraying at practically every seem, but with a square hat and work boots he looked professional at least. Not very flattering, but, hey, it was work. "Keep an eye on dinner, finish your studies and then we can head over to the Genbrets' for the movie."

"Okay. Oh, Kai?"

"Yeah?"

"I passed by the Qualia's today and they told me to remind you about your eye appointment on Thursday."

"Yup, can't forget that one." He took his glasses off his nose again and examined the frames. There was tape on both joints and at the ends near his ears. "These barely fit anymore and, I think, have actually gone through the garbage disposal?"

Namarra smiled shyly at that and turned back to her books, pretending not to remember that incident. It was a hard time adjusting after their parents died.

"Oh, and don't think you're not going to pay back Mrs. Buer for that window. Walk home with Clotho and Jasmine tomorrow so you all can do some chores."

Namarra groaned, but the complaint was short lived, Kai tossing a square package on the table in front of her.

"And, sis?" She looked up to see him smile, a wink added in after he said, "Happy birthday."

* * *

_CE 71 December 27: Mendel_

Mendel looked the same. Lexi wasn't sure why she thought it might have been different—perhaps there was a bit of wishful thinking mixed in there—but the musty fragrance wafting into her nostrils the moment the redhead took off her helmet was enough to bring back some poor memories. They docked in the harbor opposite the one the Three Ship Alliance had been camping in during the Bloody Valentine War. The docking was harder than Lexi and Namarra had anticipated in their basic shuttle—since the port had been more damaged than the others—but it was closer to the Berserker info. Somehow, wasting a day tracking through the Mendel interior didn't seem worth the effort.

"Did you ask Dearka where he found that Bible thing?" Namarra asked, taking her helmet off after Lexi had. Her hair was pulled back into a braid that day, a mixture of having gotten up before her alarm and a boring shuttle ride contributing to the craftsmanship. With her hair pulled back away from her face, Lexi couldn't help but notice Namarra's eyes more vivid than usual. Perhaps it was the process of going from black space to the light of the satellite interior, but her two-toned eyes almost gleamed. Namarra had said it was the combination of the drugs she was forced to take when she was still at Blue Cosmos that forced one of her once forest green eyes to something of a vague grey-green. If it turned any more grey, it would match Lexi's own silver irises. "Any notable landmarks at least?"

"The area he had found the information had gotten pretty damaged thanks to the fallen Strike and CGUE," Lexi responded, the mention of Mu's old mobile suit making Namarra's eyes twitch with the memory. The young Natural had been doing alright with the most recent tragedies in her life, but if there was one thing nearly impossible to get over it was the death of a loved one. Tragic deaths seemed the hardest, but Namarra was coping the best way she knew how.

Avoiding the issue.

"Then we'll just have to do a little digging." She raised the shovel in her hand as if to stress the point.

Lexi nodded and flexed her fingers around the shovel in her palm. It was rather humorous to see the two of them resorting to manual labor—and practically an archaic version of—but there was little choice in the matter. The PLANTs had a couple restorative groups making plans to restore the satellite and were winning over the general population. The girls figured they would start reconstruction after the holidays so they had little room to work with. Hence the desperation where the shovels were concerned.

"From our location it should take roughly a half hour to walk to where the Strike had fallen," Lexi explained, taking the first step onto the vacant street. She slipped her helmet into the hook near her waist, taking a second to straighten out her short, red hair. There was no need for her to waste any effort on an elaborate hair design. She too had been up before her alarm, but a couple swipes with a comb and she was ready to go.

"Sounds fine," Namarra responded, and quick-stepped to match her stride.

Despite the damage a couple miles down the road, the area near the dock was still in good shape. If Lexi hadn't know for a fact the place was abandoned, she would swear people were still living there. Every now and again, a shadow would cross a window and make her turn her head, but there would be nothing there. She could tell Namarra was experiencing the same thing because the Natural would turn every once in a while too, even making a complete circle once when she thought she heard someone walking behind them. Silence did eerie things to the imagination, and even if the girls figured that was what was happening, they still couldn't help running their hands up and down their arms to brush off the chill.

Lexi had other reasons to feel a chill, however, most of those shadows reminding her of a particular fair foe her Berserker had killed rather gruesomely in that satellite. From her position, she couldn't tell if they were even close to the apartment she had squatted in, but the memories were still fresh. She was about to calculate their position aloud, but knew Namarra would just make some sarcastic comment and that would be the end of it. It was still a creepy environment and Lexi found herself releasing a breath when they finally reached their destination.

Dearka hadn't been holding back when he said the area was damaged. There was even a mobile suit-sized crater in the pavement and the side of the building where the battle had gone on. The building that was damaged the most had many folders and books flowing from the holes, but based on its stability—or lack there of—the girls weren't going to risk it. They walked to the side though, and bent down to look through the articles there.

Most were some genetic research papers about cloning and the Artificial Womb, but those things they had come across just by doing some basic searching. Some things they snagged, like a detailed description of DNA that had a small reference to Coordinators, but they couldn't gather much from the wreckage.

"There's a computer in there," Namarra said, shining her flashlight through one of the bigger holes. "And it looks to be in pretty good shape. We might be able to get some files off it."

Lexi saw where she was looking and found herself frowning. "It could be a long shot. I don't even think we have the technology to read that kind of hard drive anymore."

"I'm sure Lathan can come up with something," the Natural responded and weeded her way through the bricks and debris to get safely inside. Lexi doubted the structure would buckle, seeing as it had been standing for that long already, but she found herself filled with a nervous curiosity.

What else was in there?

"Got it!" Namarra announced, struggling a little with the machine in her arms as she carried it out. Setting it down on the pavement, Lexi watched her for a moment before slowly making her way towards the same opening.

"See anything else in there?" the redhead asked, using her flashlight to search around.

"Not really," Namarra admitted. "We could try the next building though."

Step.

Step.

Screech!

Crash!

Lexi jumped and based on Namarra's stance when they looked at each other, so had she. There was no way their imaginations were running away from them that time. There had been two distinct footsteps, the groaning of a door, and then the loud slam when it shut. As far as she knew, neither girl had seen a ghost or even believed in them. Hell, if there were ghosts walking around, Lexi would hate to know how many were following her around. Knowing the type of people she had killed in the war and only having a guess at the large amount, _anyone_ could be haunting them.

But that wasn't possible, right?

"This is shit," Namarra said first, her voice making Lexi jump again.

"What, you think the _wind_ did it? There is no wind."

"You're paranoid. C'mon, let's get this back and contact Lathan."

Lexi didn't argue and turned to help her manage the awkwardness of the computer. Looking back once, she didn't see anything in the windows, but the tension in the air had shifted. It was hard not to think about it as they were trudging back—and the redhead could tell Namarra was a bit unnerved by the tension as well—but even if they did call out to whatever had made the noise, what would they do if it even responded?

They got back to the shuttle in good time and contacted Lathan once they were able to set the computer down. "I can't do anything with it until I see it," he had said, but he didn't sound hopeful either.

"Should we go out again?" Namarra asked. It was a good question and despite her nerves, Lexi found herself nodding. They had come for a reason and despite the bad air, they needed some answers before her DNA decided to make sure she went ape shit.

They got back to the research point without any major incident. The shadows were easier to ignore the second time around, but that didn't mean they were comfortable enough to keep their safeties on. More flashlight work was done at the spot than actual exploring the second time. The hole Namarra had stepped through the first time was gone, the ceiling having collapsed on itself.

"Huh," was the only response made when they saw the damage. For something that significant, they were surprised they didn't hear anything. Apparently, they were meant to get that old computer and nothing more.

"We could check the facility Mu was at with Kira. I remember him talking about it."

Lexi nodded, remembering Namarra mention something before. It was a research lab mainly pertaining to Coordinators. Since it was close, there was no reason not to wander around.

They didn't get too far into the facility until it started looking more like a factory than anything for research. The large circular columns held up a ceiling well over two stories with a catwalk twisting across the second floor like a failing Tetris game. It looked like the paths went to nothing more than offices, but Lexi kept it in mind, adding another computer to the bunch might not be a bad idea.

"Holy shit," Namarra cursed, pointing to some cylinders a step below them. The glass was cloudy, a red haze carpeting the sides, but that wasn't the creepiest part. Inside were babies, or at least something that resembled a fetus at one point. Each one had its eyes closed, but the eyeballs were still bulging through, the round mounds still like two jewels waiting to be mined. The skin was a silky bit of muck, some pieces stretching down from the limbs and bobbing absently in the liquid. Some of the machines had been turned off, but most were still running, the umbilical cords pulsing with useless nutrients to the dead fetus.

"What was this place _really_?" Lexi asked, peeling her fingers from the railing, not realizing she had been gripping it so tightly.

"We might want to find out," Namarra suggested, the tone in her voice verifying that she really wasn't sure if she meant it as a statement.

"C'mon," Lexi said, pinching the fabric on her comrade's shoulder and pulling her further down the hall.

They didn't get too far down when Namarra started noticing drops of blood on the ground. The Natural merely pointed, neither girl saying anything about its possible origin. They followed the spots, however, stepping into a room. Pictures and papers littered the floor, gathering dust that would make anyone with a nose sneeze. Both did respectfully and walked further inside to examine the contents. Most of the computer equipment was broken and on the floor. They had the good idea to still grab the chips inside, but the poor combination of heavy machinery and dust kicked that idea in the mud.

"Nam, look at this." Lexi held up a picture, one with an older gentleman and two young boys. All had blonde hair and blue eyes, their attire making them appropriate for Sunday morning church. "Do you think—"

"Mu told me a bit about what had happened and Murrue filled in the rest of the blanks," the Natural explained. "Le Creuset was Mu's father's clone, from what I gathered."

"Clone?"

"Failed clone," she corrected. "Aged too quickly."

"So, is that why he wore a mask?" Lexi whispered, but in such a quiet room it was easy for Namarra to hear.

"You knew him better than I did."

"I don't think anyone really knew him," the redhead responded, a bitter taste on her tongue. Setting the picture back down, she rifled through the other things lying there. There wasn't much because the Three Ship Alliance had already come back and grabbed as much as they could. They were looking for information on the cloning, most likely, not any kind of Berserker info.

"What is this 'Ultimate Coordinator' business?" Namarra had walked over to the other table, picking up some of the papers and reading pieces. "You ever heard of it?"

Lexi stood, shaking her head. "What does it say?"

"'Day 30: The fetus is still dying. Despite all our efforts, it looks like we still have not perfected the artificial womb. There is one more specimen we can try. He has my genes so I'm sure he'll survive. He has to.'"

Lexi listened as Namarra kept reading. She paused at the end of the page and the redhead looked up. "What?"

She read. "'Finally, success! My son has survived and we get to see what we've all been waiting so long for. The artificial womb worked and an Ultimate Coordinator was born: Kira Hibiki.'"

There was a pause as Namarra and Lexi looked at each other. Namarra was the first to speak. "You don't think—"

"It would explain a lot."

"This is way too coincidental."

"Some god up there is having a good laugh right now," Lexi muttered. "'What do you get when you put a clone, the Ultimate Coordinator and two Berserkers in the same war?' It's as if we're being mocked." Her voice dropped in the imitation and they shared a shaky laugh afterwards.

It was probably true.

"Hold on, there's more." Namarra turned the page and cleared her throat. "'The boy came out healthy, but the cloning project is gaining too much unwelcomed attention. We've had humanists picketing at our door for over a week now. If they win their appeal to the Supreme Council we're done. I don't even think our lawyers agree with our methods. No matter how much we pay them, those moralistic bastards seem to be finding more fuel for our opponents than us. If the cloning project goes under, so does the artificial womb. We'll keep our research, however, and wait until the boy grows up so we can _prove_ there is a species even beyond Coordinators. And something we can _control_. Nothing like that Berserker nonsense the Naturals are working on.'" Namarra paused, surprised she had just read that aloud. "'When we're finished, we're make something even more powerful and perfect than the Ultimate Coordinator.'"

"So, let me get this straight," Lexi began after they had a moment to digest. "The artificial womb was just a step towards perfecting humanity?"

"From the Coordinator side of things. And from the Natural end—"

"The Berserkers?" Lexi made it a question.

"So, we were fabricated like the Ultimate Coordinator?"

They both shook their heads even before Namarra finished her statement. "Everything else we have learned points to the fact that we were _born_ with the Berserker gene, not made."

"Perhaps the Ultimate Coordinator—or even Coordinators in general—were attempted in response to this ancient idea of a Berserker."

"That might be a little too much conjecture," Lexi responded, but even her mind was growing on the idea. "If the Naturals were trying to create Berserkers even way back then, they _had _to have succeeded somewhere, right?"

"I don't know. According to Azrael—" Namarra stopped, her eyes opening wide in a realization. "My parents were famous researchers."

"Okay, and?"

"And _I'm_ a Berserker. Do you think they were on one of the research teams and managed to _conceive_ a Berserker with their methods? So, maybe I'm the experiment that _worked_." She started pacing, her hand flapping frantically with her rant. "And that was why they were killed. Because I _worked_."

"Now, now, Namarra, that's all speculation."

"But _we_ are rare and only _one_ at a time. Lexi, there's _two_ Berserkers alive right now."

"There could be so many reasons—"

"They did it. The Naturals actually did it."

"Namarra!" Lexi yelled, grabbing the younger girl by the shoulders to steady her. "We have no _proof_ so stop getting yourself worked up." She managed to take a couple deep breaths before nodding her head.

"Y-you're right. I'm jumping ahead of myself."

"Yes, yes you are."

They were silent for a few long moments as they gathered up the materials they found. They would copy it down and then give most of it to Erika since she was probably the only person who could understand and compile all the information.

"Y'know," Namarra began again as they stepped out of the room. "You must be gold to any Coordinator researcher still investigating this idea of the Ultimate Coordinator."

"How so?"

"Think about it. In a way, the Ultimate Coordinator was created to imitate the idea of a Berserker and you're a Berserker who's a Coordinator too." They paused again. "Lexi, if I am a successful experiment—and I'm not saying I am—and you are the prime candidate to the Coordinators, we should start addressing the idea that we might be hunted."

"I think I'm more worried about what might happen if we're caught. If we can be copied, what's to stop them from having another all-out war?"

"Who's to say there aren't already successful copies out there?"

* * *

_CE 72 January 9: Space_

Namarra's birthday was low key. Lathan—Lexi's older brother by three years—and Heine—his orange-haired roommate and ZAFT specialist—had a small get together at their apartment so it was just the four of them. Lexi's talk with a potential supplier the day before turned out fruitful so she got a nice goodwill present she actually wrapped before giving it to her fellow Berserker. It was some bullets, a gun cleaning kit, and a new scope for her sniper rifle. Namarra loved the present—of course—even if it was a bit odd for a fifteen-year-old. Heine and Lathan had a more age-appropriate gift, but the kicker of the night was when Lathan gave the girls their new aliases. With the world out to research their genetic make-up, different names on missions seemed only appropriate. Fortunately, with the world in a state of peaceful chaos there were ways to get new identities without having to alert anyone unwelcomed.

"Hey, I'm seventeen according to this," Namarra said, pointing and showing the fake date around the room. She sat at the dinner table, her dirty plate shoved towards the center of the table. "Yup, Coda Loire Almasy. And who are you, Lexi?"

Lexi stood next to Heine at the bar, the redhead looking out into the dining room as Lathan finished eating and Namarra bragged about her ID. Flipping the piece of plastic over, she read her name. "I'm Piper Eponine Palazzo. That's a lot of 'Ps', Lathan. And what am I, French? Italian?"

"Hey, people are mixed nowadays, sis. Just be happy you got the first name you wanted," Lathan said, stretching as he finished his meal and moved over to digest on the couch. Sometimes it was a blessing he couldn't see the looks on people's faces because she didn't want him to know how her nose crinkled whenever she saw his unnerving eyes. Being blind had bleached his once beautiful eyes but they still held a bit of humanity, unlike her pupiless Berserker eyes. Now she kind of knew why others made similar faces when her other half would show its ugly face.

"And look," Namarra continued, having jumped up from her own seat to join Heine and Lexi at the bar. Pointing down at the redhead's ID, she smiled. "You're eighteen."

"There's no way I can pull off eighteen," Lexi complained, but Heine was already jutting in to defend her.

"_Au_ _contraire_. Us Coordinators have been known to look and act a bit more mature than we really are."

"And wars always add more grey hairs and wrinkles," Namarra added, her annoyed expression giving Lexi the idea she didn't like the Coordinator comment. She perked up right away, however, cutting off Heine before he could speak again. "I think we're missing the point here. Guys, I'm seventeen and Piper," she gestured to Lexi, "is eighteen. We can legally drink here in the PLANTs."

"Somehow I knew she'd say that," Heine muttered, turning away from the beaming Natural. "Should someone that young even be so excited about drinking?"

Lexi shrugged, leaning closer to Heine as Namarra turned to argue with Lathan. "I think it's a mixture of the EA's influence and lack of supervision among its ranks," she explained. Namarra had been a member of Blue Cosmos's team in the Earth Alliance during the war. Having the three Extendeds—who they lovingly called the Druggies—as teammates made for an interesting past.

"She was in a pretty tough program too, wasn't she?"

"I think some of the trials and observations they tried on her involved consuming alcohol. She was among the first test subjects so I'm sure they were just trying new things left and right."

Heine shivered, his expression shifting towards sympathetic. "So, her love of drinking either stems from addiction at a young age, or the fond memories she had made with her teammates while being intoxicated?"

Lexi nodded and shrugged at the same time, not having a chance to make a comment since Namarra's attention turned back to them.

Annoyed, the Natural hooked her arm around Lexi's and pulled her towards the door, even managing to grab the two IDs as she passed. "Well, it's my birthday and I say we drink."

"If I can't stop you," Lathan began with a sigh, running a hand through is strawberry-blonde hair, "then someone _has _to go with you. If you two are recognized—especially Lexi—then you need someone to help bail you out and I'm a terrible supervisor in my current condition so, Heine?"

"Sorry, guys, I'm not promoting underage drinking _and _false identifications."

"But—"

"Relax, Nam, I know two people we can call. Dearka's around and so is Yzak."

Lexi had never seen Namarra's mouth twist into such a smile.

And it was rather scary.

* * *

No, they weren't drunk.

Despite Namarra's enthusiasm towards drinking, she rarely went past buzzed. It was interesting to dissect the battle in her mind over the whole ordeal. The joyful relief of going that extra drink into bliss against the soldier paranoia and plea to stay in control.

Lexi could always handle herself, the Coordinator in her adding an extra layer of stability their Berserkers already made. Their "supervisors", on the other hand, were having the most trouble, but that was mainly because they already knew everyone in the bar. Given Lexi's past run-in with ZAFT officers, Namarra was surprised she agreed to go to a military bar. However, watching her and the silver-haired guy—introduced as Yzak—she got it.

So, Lexi was a teenage girl after all.

Namarra had to give her props though, she was doing a fairly good job managing her time between the three of them. She never left the table Namarra was at, but she never lost sight of Yzak and Dearka—Yzak's best friend and both Lexi's and Yzak's old teammate—either. Yzak and Dearka were now the same height, Lexi haven taken the time to note it when they met outside. Yzak was thinner than Dearka, not in the sense of fat, but that one could bulk up easier than the other. Dearka—with his tan skin, blonde hair and dreamy smile—just looked like the ideal, magazine model of the ZAFT military, but Yzak never seemed intimidated. Listening and watching him joke with the other guys help her understand why though. He had a load of confidence built up in that body of his.

"Y'know, Yzak likes you."

Lexi stopped mid-drink. The Natural partly expected her to blush and make some kind of surprised remark—that's what all the other teenagers seemed to do—but Lexi impressed her with a shrug.

"I know."

"And you like him."

That got a blush at least. "I know."

"And you're not going to do anything about it?" Lexi shrugged and Namarra started to get a little peeved. "_You_ out of all people should know how ruthless and unpredictable life can be. Are you sure you want to do nothing?"

"And _you_ out of all people should know my past with ZAFT. Yzak's on his way to _commander_."

"He's not getting promoted tomorrow, is he?" Her frown was enough of an answer. She was going through excuses, but Namarra had her cornered. The Natural couldn't help but smile. "Checkmate."

"Hey, Piper!" Yzak called, one hand resting on Dearka's shoulder as he waved the other in Lexi's direction. "And you too, Coda, get over here and solve something for us." The two of them were surrounded by four other guys, all of them laughing. The bar may have been noisy, but it was still too early to be terribly busy. Still, it was hard to hear what was said next; something about Dearka and Miriallia.

"Settle a debate for us, should Dearka date Miriallia?"

"_That's_ the debate?" Lexi asked, stumbling slightly when Yzak put an arm over her shoulders and pulled her closer.

"These guys here think there's too much drama between the two of them to have a 'healthy' relationship." He even did the air quotes.

"There _is _a lot of drama," Namarra agreed, her voice trailing off. She wasn't sure how much information she should get into, especially since there would be no chance their aliases would have ever come in contact with the Three Ship Alliance. She locked eyes with Lexi who seemed to be thinking the same thing. Dearka had been a prisoner, turned rogue, ZAFT pilot when he had joined the Three Ship Alliance and thanks to some emotional stabbing—literally—his relationship with Miriallia—then a crew member aboard the _Archangel—_had started off ugly, but was slowly growing into something.

"C'mon, Yzak, we don't need to be getting the girls into this," Dearka said with a laugh as he took another swallow. It was an uneasy laugh and Namarra found herself wanting to defend him.

"But it's _because_ they're girls," one of the younger officers said. He wrapped an arm around the Natural's shoulders, giving them a shake. She tensed, Lexi tensed in Namarra's peripheral vision and the guys just seemed to laugh.

"Actually, the fact that we have vaginas doesn't mean we know everything that goes on in the minds of others who have similar anatomy." She picked up his index finger and stepped out of his embrace. "After all, I can't tell what _you're_ thinking."

"Okay," Lexi interrupted, taking one step forward to get between them. "That's enough for now." Thankfully, the soldier was a happy drunk because he just laughed it off. Lexi mouthed, "We're gonna go," to Yzak who nodded and downed his drink.

"Well, we'll have to see what happens then. Now, boys," he grabbed Dearka's elbow, "it's time we called it a night." A communal groan resounded through the bunch, but no one stepped in to physically block them. That was good because the only thing needed yet to make Namarra's birthday a success was a bar brawl.

* * *

_CE 72 January 20: Orb_

"Okay, so, Lathan, where we headed?" Lexi asked, opening the manila folder and trying to make sense of the contents inside. While the whole Hermes gig was a good idea, Lathan and Athrun had been trying to turn it into a business-like setting. Paychecks, paperwork, damage reports, reports in general, folders—lots and lots of folders—were good and all, but she had seen less paperwork in the ZAFT military and they had been known for its pointless signature-work. Hermes was a small organization form to keep the world from stumbling back into war. They were still getting their feet off the ground, but with some help from Terminal—and old part of the Clyne Faction—things had progressed beyond bumpy at least.

"Watch, it'll be some place cold," Namarra grumbled, trying to make sense of the same folder. Why they had bothered to make two copies was beyond her. They were on the same team, sharing the same apartment and even on the _exact_ same mission. Come on, couldn't they at least be environmental friendly?

"You're headed to a town on the southern border of Mongolia—"

"See, cold."

"—where we've located an underground facility housing some nuclear products."

"You mean, nuclear weapons," Lexi corrected but her brother shook her head.

"We don't know for sure what they are, only that they contain nuclear components."

"So, I guess just blowing this thing up from a distance is off the playbook?" Namarra closed the manila folder and set it down on the desk. By that time she had either memorized it or just plain got tired of holding it.

Lathan frowned and adjusted the glasses on his nose. Based on the scowl crossing his lips, the frustration painted there had to do with a little more than the girls' attitudes. His breakthrough on biomedical contraptions for war veterans was at a standstill until he got his own eyesight—or lack there of—under control. So far, he had made one thing, a device much like sonar that produced inaudible sound waves and bounced back to devices in his ears which created a mental picture for him. It worked fairly well, just needed a few tweaks because his brain wasn't built like a bat's. There were times Lexi had seen him talking to a dog sitting on the bench instead of its owner right next to him.

"We need this place infiltrated and the workers apprehended. There are other ways to get rid of nuclear waste besides just blowing things up and waiting decades for the radiation to leak through the earth."

"Geez, Lathan, I was just wondering."

"Is it just the two of us?" Lexi asked, trying to move the conversation away from the daily bickering. "According to this blueprint, that's a lot of ground to cover for just two people."

"Athrun has offered to join you, but I'm not sure how many others he is going to let do the actual mission. I think he's a bit wary of just giving you people to work with. Terminal gave me the contacts of two people they want you to work with though."

"Have you met them before?" Lexi didn't like the idea of her and Namarra working on such a mission with soldiers she didn't even know, but it looked as if she wasn't going to have a choice in the matter. Unfortunately, arguing with the people who provided the check wasn't a good idea.

Lathan shook his head. "Sorry, sis. Their experience is impressive and I think you guys will get along fine despite no previous contact."

"What about Heine?" Namarra asked, indicating Lathan's absent roommate.

Lathan shook his head. "Heine's still being a good bitch and has even been recruited to be part of the restoration crew. A sudden trip to Mongolia probably wouldn't fly very well with his superior."

"So, we'll meet Athrun at Orb then skip over to our target area," Lexi summarized, closing the manila folder. "Sounds good, but why are _we _handling it? Isn't this a job for the EA?"

"With the chaos the Earth Forces are in, they're lucky they know who their own personnel are let alone have an idea of who to send out." He shook his head again. "No, they passed this on to us."

"They _passed_ it to us?" Namarra asked, noting the terminology. "Are you saying the EA gave this to us _personally_?"

Lathan winked, a twinkle of humor in his stark white eyes. "You two aren't the only ones who know some people in high places."

"Impressive," Lexi commented.

"And we'll get paid a hefty sum if you guys come out victorious and that means," he turned to Namarra, "no blowing things up."

"So, all this is about money. How materialistic of you, Lathan." The Natural crossed her arms over her chest, but was still smiling nonetheless. Despite their mantra, Hermes needed money too. While they had quite a bit from Athrun's father's estate and the siblings', Lathan and Lexi, parents' estate, it wasn't going to keep them afloat for every long. Terminal was adding as much funds as they could, but their involvement mainly consisted of contacts and materials.

"You two better get going."

"You'll be alright by yourself?" Lexi asked. "After all, with Heine out most of the time, you'll be there by yourself. And," she pointed to both his ears, "with that system still a bit glitchy, I have a feeling you're going to mistake the window for a door."

"Technically, it _is _a door," he joked, but patted her cheek before pushing them through the kitchen. "Relax, after you're gone, I'll just sit all lonely-like in my room and do nothing but stare at the wall."

Lexi frowned, not thinking that was much of an improvement, but she wasn't about to argue again. Call it character development.

* * *

_CE 72 January 27: Mongolia_

Lexi and Namarra—going by the musical names of Piper and Coda—had gotten used to the whole idea of a team when doing missions, but it was one thing to accept help from a pilot amid a chaotic space battle and another thing entirely to have someone literally giving physical contact as you're crawling through a dark tunnel. Lexi was going to unprofessionally opt for some kind of light—even going with night vision—but bit her tongue, not wanting to lose any brownie points with their new comrades.

They went by the names of Johann and Sebastian. While the initial thought was to believe that was their codenames—a little bit too obsessed with the great musicians—they had explained that was their birth names. Both were recruits from Terminal and, ironically, brothers-in-law. Sebastian never failed to make a jab below the belt when it came to spiting the young man who married his sister. Their relationship might have been funny if they didn't bicker like old women and Johann had a bad case of OCD, making prep for the mission one of the most tedious things the girls had done in years. Before they even ventured below ground they counted bullets, made sure they were usable, cleaned the guns, put them back together, tested the sharpness of their blades—which was a mission in and of itself given how armed Lexi and Namarra were—then proceeded to check clothing.

The girls didn't participate in that one.

"Really, Johann, we did most of this before we went through the tunnel," Sebastian groaned, checking the strap on his shoulder holster a third time. Johann didn't respond, counting the buttons on his belt and making sure he fitted the latch through the right hole.

They were just outside their target. Above them was a small city in Mongolia, the climb down through the sewers taking them to the main base and entrance of the supposed nuclear warehouse. The only saving grace about having to sneak up on potentially dangerous people underground was the fact that they could strip off their winter buff and wear something a little more comfortable. There were still about three layers between skin and holster, but at least they could move and the Kevlar vest kept in more heat than the girls thought possible. The guys seemed used to the attire and had dressed just as lightly, but—then again—they could have done that just so the prep work wouldn't take as long.

"How long you two been partners?" Namarra asked, stretching her arms into the air and leaning from one side to the other. They were in a safe pocket for now, the many corners underground helping conceal their position as their OCD partner continued his muttering.

"Going on five years," Sebastian replied, massaging the back of his neck as he did the math. In their first meeting, Namarra had found Sebastian a tad unnerving. No one had been their buffer for introductions, but Lathan had left names, descriptions and a location. The meeting was brief and the four of them separated to do some field work prior to the mission. There was really no time for formal chit chat so they pegged questions here and there just to keep things friendly. The unnerving part, however, didn't appear until Sebastian had explained what he would be wearing on the mission. Thanks to some areas, his lungs had sucked in an unhealthy amount of asbestos, grout and any other infectious particles circling the air. Johann had been lucky so far and thanks to his OCD he had been able to avoid the worst of it. Sebastian, on the other hand hadn't been so fortunate. He was forced to wear a helmet, working also as an air purifier. So, it kept his head from getting blown in as well as kept his breathing fresh. Too bad it was ungodly hot and while many of his senses were heightened, it needed an upgrade and had malfunctioned in the past.

Not very comforting despite his assurance it would work well.

Johann was in the middle of making sure his shoe laces were tied with the same amount of pressure on his boots when Sebastian slung the helmet from under his armpit and slipped it over his head. "This is the last thing he does," he explained.

"You're _sure _he won't do this in the middle of the mission?" Lexi asked, folding her arms across the chest. "I'll shoot him myself if we get compromised because of this."

Sebastian shook his head. "His mind is only on the mission now. Trust me, you have nothing to worry about."

"Alright," Johann said, jumping up and down a couple times as he slipped on a helmet of his own. It wasn't as elaborate as his partner's but they did look like an interesting duo standing next to each other. Both were covered head to toe in black, Johann with a goofy smile on his open face while Sebastian's eyes glowed red. "We'll begin in 3 minutes and 43 seconds."

Lexi blinked, looking at her own watch perfectly timed with his. Watching the digital numbers change, she realized what time it would be in 3 minutes and 43 seconds.

Exactly 3:00AM.

"We'll strike when the ghosts come out," Sebastian explained in his muffled voice, but the girls knew better.

It was just Johann's OCD again.

* * *

The main goal was to gain control of the complex and then make the call out to Athrun who was the leader of their clean-up crew. Athrun had left the "how" up to the four of them which was giving them a lot more freedom than the young Coordinator probably anticipated. If they could, Athrun wanted the information from the nuclear warehouse's databases, especially shipping records and inventory. Containing the nuclear components was a must as well.

Sounded easy enough.

Namarra and Lexi had been in charge of personnel count and rounds while the other two had read over the blueprint and schematics. There was just shy of 30 soldiers in the complex at one time, the people swapping out daily. Rounds were the basic on the hour, but even if they managed to come in before the rounds changed, they could take over the complex without many complications. Besides, Sebastian had explained topside that the complex was so big there was no way only 25 or so guards—and roughly six chemists—could patrol the whole complex, especially since they were paired up, according the Namarra's information.

The complex was two stories, consisting of two warehouses in the west (the rear of the building) and the second floor overlooking the goings on. The longest stretch of hallway was right after they entered the building, the architect probably having to wait until the stone proved weak enough to start building upward. They were supposed to be housing nuclear items in one of those warehouses and were even selling them to the highest bidder. There were rumors they had been making weapons as well, but that had never been verified. With their luck they would all fall into the nuclear goop and be a part of a nuclear massacre.

As the digital clock changed to 3:00AM, Namarra took aim at the two guards standing at the metal doors and sniped them both while Lexi took out the two cameras right above. Sebastian and Johann led the charge, their standard military M16s down at their sides. Namarra and Lexi followed with their own M16s once they stashed their rifles. With the cameras shot out, they knew they had about 3 minutes (there was that 3 again) until more men would be at the gate.

And the two girls couldn't wait to see how radiation would compliment their Berserker gene.

"In," Johann announced, the digital keypad making a high pitch beep once he had successfully inputted the code.

Sebastian slid in first, his M16 braced against his shoulder. He stopped a couple of feet in, waiting for the other three to slide in behind him before leading the way down the hallway, since he was the walking map. The girls brought up the middle while Johann strayed to the rear. They worked very well for a team that had just been thrown together, the two girls splitting off to check rooms when there were some along the halls. Many of the rooms stayed locked and Sebastian would end up calling them off, knowing them to be used for more storage. Namarra and Lexi would shoot the digital keypad anyway to keep others from sneaking up on them.

They had been creeping down the hallway for a good ten minutes before they even came to the fork in the path. They were surprised no one had bothered to check the security breech at the front door, but didn't have much time to dwell on their fortune. To the right was the stairway to the control room and the left led to the main housing and workplace. The plan had been to have Namarra and Sebastian head to the warehouses while Johann and Lexi scouted the upstairs. While any combination would have made for good teams, Lexi and Johann were a little better at the technical aspects of the mission than Sebastian and Namarra. Besides, the workplace was a wider area and with Namarra's shooting eye and Sebastian's mental map, they would be able to get to the weapon's room with little to no disturbance.

"Break a leg!" Namarra yelled and Lexi gave a small laugh.

Johann, on the other hand, turned to his new partner and muttered under his breath. "Does she have to say that when we're the ones going up?"

Lexi patted him on the shoulder after she pulled him into an alcove. Four soldiers ran by, their uniforms looking like an offshoot of the old Earth Alliance uniforms. If she had Namarra beside her she would have asked if that was what the Blue Cosmos attire looked like, but she resolved to keeping her mouth shut. The main difference was the mask over the face, a version of Sebastian's that the redhead found rather unnerving. The insignia on both the breast and the shoulder displayed a blue world surrounded with a green stem, to represent a flower of some kind, she figured. There was writing on the badges as well, but the troops moved by too fast to make anything out. Leary, Lexi found herself glancing over at her partner for a similar design hidden under his clothing.

"I'm sure there's more than that around here," Johann said, inching out of their hiding spot and motioning her to move forward once he looked both ways. Lexi nodded, but made sure he walked out first, just in case there was an ambush waiting for her around the corner.

Running down two more corridors and up one flight of stairs, Lexi had to keep reminding herself to think the best of their comrades. It was one thing to be suspicious and another to outright accuse them. But Sebastian's helmet looked an awful lot like those Blue Cosmos soldiers.

"Control room's here." Johann motioned to the door ahead of them and slid against one of the doors. It was locked so it didn't slide open—one shot to the pad disabled it for good—and it gave a decent amount of coverage. Lexi was just as fortunate about ten feet down on the other side and she nodded, pointing at the door. Stepping out, Johann was about to make his advance when the door opened.

Lexi's first reaction was to shoot, but Johann had already done that for her, his barrage killing the first soldier. The one behind him, however, was using his fallen comrade as a shield, firing his gun over the shoulder or under the armpit. Johann's shots were precise, but given the caliber, the bullets probably were just shy of going through the body and injuring the one behind it.

Holding up his comrade and trying to fire a high caliber gun wasn't easy, so the Blue Cosmos operative had poor aim. Putting that to her advantage, Lexi leapt into a skid when the shooter was occupied. The small amount of momentum only made her go for a short distance, but she had thrown off his judgment long enough to crouch and get her feet under her. Grabbing the knife from her boot on the way up, she lunged at the gunner and stabbed downward. The blade sliced down the front of his leg, scraping against the shin bone as it descended before lodging itself snuggly in his ankle. The attack caused him to sway, Johann getting a hit on his upper chest to end that little skirmish.

"Piper, stay down," her comrade ordered, and she complied, keeping her ear just above the floor as she looked into the room and saw two more soldiers go down inside the room.

"Masks!" she yelled, grabbing the small smoke bomb near her waist. She flipped the switch and threw it into the room just as her other hand groped for her mask. Holding the material over her nose and mouth, she picked up her weapon once more before turning away from the door, resting her back against the wall.

There was some yelling, a bit of quick stomping then a small pop.

And six bodies fell to the floor.

* * *

Sebastian and Namarra reached the weapon's hangar long before Lexi and Johann had even ascended the stairs into the control room. They were trying to engage as few soldiers as they could so they stuck to the south wall and jumped behind debris whenever a couple Blue Cosmos soldiers decided to roam by. Namarra frowned when she saw another two heavily armed and racing towards their entrance point. Sure, Blue Cosmos had been an expected encounter, but somehow the whole thing felt too easy. After the war, Blue Cosmos had become one of the least liked organizations of the world, but that still didn't keep them from making buckets of money. So, while they were unliked, they were very much a stable group in the grand scheme of things. And that meant they could afford to keep nuclear buildings like this active, but the whole thing just seemed fake, from the limited number of soldiers running around right down to the insignia on their uniforms. That was the O.M.N.I. Enforcer patch.

Only the people connected to her and her brothers wore that.

Why then would there be common soldiers messing in nuclear waste wearing it?

"Namarra, the way's clear," Sebastian announced, the Natural's heart skipping a beat once again when she saw his helmet. It was so similar to the soldiers running around she found her mind overreacting whenever she turned to see him.

Nodding a response, she led the way, keeping her eye on her target. There was a set of double doors at the east then of the complex, a red light situated above and a keypad next to it. Namarra had faith they would hack the pad without their local wiz kids, but the problem was doing it before they were outnumbered. They might have been out of sight along the south wall, but that was thanks to the shipping crates and storage boxes. That door was surrounded by only one shipment of crates—about four boxes—and no less than fifty feet of open space in all directions. And they would only have one gun.

"All clear," Namarra announced, making eye contact with her partner and motioning them both towards the pad. Gunfire sounded towards her right and she looked up into the control room. She couldn't see much, but there were some bullets trying to punch their way through the glass, finding the material far more resistant than the typical household brand.

"I'll cover you," Sebastian said, pivoting to view the whole area as Namarra nodded and dropped to one knee. Her partner pushed off the top crate nearby and scooted it between them and the enemy. No one had noticed them yet, but it was only a matter of time before someone came in shooting. The box was big enough to cover his crouching form, but whether or not it was thick enough had yet to be determined.

"I hope there's nothing explosive in there," Namarra muttered, setting down her gun and feeling the deep rush of nervousness. She could only name a couple of times she had put down a gun in battle and neither time had turned out for the better. "I'm trying four codes, then I'm just gonna cut wires. Five wrong codes initiates the alarm," she announced, entering in the opening code while sifting through the many number combinations in her mind before she grasped onto the series of twenty that it could be. Lucky for them, the code changed every hour and there was no way of knowing which one it could be, seeing as it was all random. If they had had a fingerprint, things would have been so much easier, but since there were new personnel in the building each day and the other fingerprints erased—well—sometimes it was just easier to use force to break through.

"Incoming," Sebastian said, Namarra hearing him line himself up for the shot before he fired. She couldn't see whether or not he hit anything, but his cursing was a good indication he had missed.

"Two more," the Natural announced, clearing out the try and putting in another.

Access denied.

A stray bullet hit the metal door nearby, the bullet ricocheting randomly, but luckily out of harm's way. Three more followed suit and Namarra cursed, one bullet wizzing by her head. _Maybe we need to invest in helmets,_ she thought, digging out her knife when the fourth code didn't work either. "Using force."

"Well, make it quick."

Wedging the knife tip under the device, she pulled outward, trying to make the cover pop back, however, it was a little more stubborn than anticipated.

"Shit, I'm out!" Sebastian cried.

Namarra had already dropped what she was doing and picked up her weapon before the words "Cover me," even came out of his mouth. Sebastian ducked down while she turned, firing a barrage towards the opposite end of the hangar. The place was a mess, really, Sebastian hitting some of the products and starting small fires. Gasoline had even started leaking from one of the vehicles and a soldier was trying to stop the flow before it blew up behind their makeshift line. Aiming, she fired, but a precise shot at the right time forced her aim to the right, taking out the soldier instead of the vehicle.

"Alright, go," Sebastian ordered, having reloaded and already issuing a barrage of bullets.

Namarra didn't wait for another chance. Dropping back to the ground, she chiseled off the panel and cut the yellow wire.

The door opened.

* * *

Johann had to take down two more soldiers in masks before he announced the all clear and the duo went inside. Dropping his weapon, he pushed one of the bodies off the chair and sat down. Stretching his sleeve over his hand, he wiped off the keyboard quickly before starting his own typing.

"Seriously?" she hissed, but he made no witty comeback and merely focused on the job as she stood watch at the door. She made sure to camp out at the right side, to get a quick shot in before the door opened all the way. Johann had been smart enough to position himself at the far end of the room, at the chair nearest to the wall on the side that the door didn't open. Whatever amount of time they could grab, they wanted.

"Alright, sending a copy of the shipping lists to our dear employer," he finished a couple of sequences then pressed a button loudly, "now." He did some more typing. "And the list of contacts, now."

Lexi heard some stamping down the corridor and aimed her gun about waist high. While she wasn't particularly tall, it would be a shame if she got a nice bullet in the stomach because her adversary was a midget.

"Inventory list. Send."

The door slid open and Lexi took fire, clipping the soldier in the left side of the chest before he could get off a shot. He fell with the momentum, hitting the door as he tumbled to his right. Two more soldiers tried coming in after, starting their advance with some blind shooting. Neither of the two were right in front of the door, however, the bullets wedging themselves into the glass. She took out one before he could step inside, her bullet hitting his left hip. His fall slowed the next advancer and she managed a shot at his throat.

The door closed.

"Employee list sent."

"Any day now."

"Patience, darling, patience."

"So says the guy with OCD."

"Weapon schematics sending," he pressed the "Enter" key loudly again, "now. And just for the fun of it," he continued, reaching into his pants pocket and pulling out a flashdrive. Slipping it into the computer, his fingers went back to the keyboard and produced a melody Lexi found on the verge of obnoxious. It was as if his mind couldn't even work without being in intervals of three. It reminded her a bit of the triplet movement in music, but she had no time to either sing or dance along.

The door inched open and Lexi aimed.

"Here's a little virus in case our allies don't get here in time."

A small grenade rolled inside.

"Jump!" Lexi yelled, and scrambled to the window. Putting the gun in front of her face, she lunged at the glass, picking the spot where the bullets had weakened it the most. She heard another smaller shatter before the grenade exploded.

Then she heard nothing else.

* * *

The shooting stopped the minute the door opened, but neither Sebastian nor Namarra knew why until they had a chance to turn and look inside. On a series of shelving units rested hundreds of nuclear missiles, ranging in size from big to biggest depending on how far back into the storeroom the person looked. Any stray bullet could puncture and then kill them all.

"Convenient," Namarra muttered, Sebastian and her walking towards the opening as they kept their weapons on their adversaries. She could tell a long string of curses was running through each mind just based on the scowls twitching on each lip.

The best thing to do at that moment was to hold their ground. Their enemy could either fire on them—probably blowing them all up in the process—or run and leave their stock to save their own skins. If Lexi and Johann had done their job correctly, Athrun should have the information already anyway.

"Perhaps you should phone the boss—" Sebastian started, but the sequence of two high pitched clashes then a loud explosion made everyone turn toward the north. Two people were up in the air then down, crashing onto some sacks and barrels of waste. The blast actually improved their chances of survival, pushing them out further to land on something other than crates of unassembled weaponry.

Broken bones and glass shards are a small price to pay for a broken spine or neck.

"Oh shit," Sebastian said and Namarra could only agree. They had lost their upper hand.

Half of the soldiers in front of them—only four—broke off to get Lexi and Johann. Those two were in a pickle already though, three soldiers aiming down and firing at where their bodies had landed.

Sebastian acted first, running after the four who fled. Namarra couldn't blame him and covered his ass, running at the remaining four while aiming a stream of bullets waist high. Two went down immediately, but the other two had managed to come out unscathed.

One to her left brought his gun up high and she ducked, using the butt of her gun to punch his kneecap. The tendon gave under the pressure, swirling to the other side of his leg as he grunted and kneeled. Kicking the gun from his hand, she shot two bullets into the calves of the final soldier—hopefully, Sebastian managed to evade his shots—and hit him hard over the head. Her first victim grabbed her ankle in a futile attempt at stopping her, but there was no pressure there. She hit him too before turning to the mess Sebastian had run off into.

The first thing she noticed was not the little explosion—both up above and below—but the small droplets of blood leading into the fray.

"Shit."

* * *

Lexi didn't know how long she had been out, but when her eyes opened, she saw the Blue Cosmos soldiers aiming down at her. Cursing loudly, she turned to her left and managed to reach out and push Johann out of immediate danger. Johann fell behind some cover, but Lexi had very little. A barrel of something fell onto her back, knocking the little wind she _had_ managed to gain out of her lungs again. It blocked the bulk of the bullets, but many grazed her legs, making them burn as if thrown into an inferno. They were small targets, but there must have been something covering them to give such marksmen hard times.

Her ears were still deaf from the explosion, but she felt each bullet, as if the barrel was a valuable shield and not crushing her ribs with its weight. Even her Kevlar vest was doing little to pad the barrage, her teeth pounding into one another painfully. She had no idea how the others were faring and couldn't tell any difference until the shooting stopped.

Ringing came back first then she heard someone yell. And Sebastian heaved the barrel off her, offering a hand.

* * *

Namarra took one to the chest. Her Kevlar stopped the bullet easily, but it still hurt. The momentum forced her backwards between two crates, her hands scraping against the edges while slivers embedded themselves in her skin. She thought she heard someone shout her name, but her head was too foggy, her skull rattling between the crates. How could she have been so careless? She had managed to take out the ones in the burning office, but had had too much faith in her partner, it seemed, since she was ambushed by one of the four that followed him. She cursed, a string worthy of her lost brothers and one that would have made her dead mother blush.

She stayed like that for a while, calculating what hurt and what didn't. It wasn't until she saw a shadow cover her that she did move to bring up her weapon. Pressing the trigger, she fired two shots.

Both over Sebastian's shoulder.

The older man sighed and shook out his hand, the heat and velocity from the barrel of the gun most likely making his fingers tingle something fierce. The weapon still leveled toward him, he hit it down with his forearm and offered the other hand to help her up.

"Damn kids," he spat, but despite the tone, she could tell there was no malice there. His masked face always looked menacing—and even his compressed voice only added to the discomfort—but somehow the whole getup was growing on her.

She took the hand.

* * *

Athrun—known to Sebastian and Johann as Alex Dino—crossed his arms over his chest, watching the rest of his backup team putting out the many fires before they secured the arms in the nuclear room. He had shed his coat a long time ago, the fires warm enough to make everyone sweat even in the minimal layers. He had reduced himself to a Kevlar vest over a long-sleeved shirt and comfortable pants. He didn't look comfy then, however, tapping his fingers against his elbows as he watched his team get bandaged.

Lexi had up to six separate grazes on each leg—leaving her to look like a diseased Leper from the waist down—a sprained left wrist, concussion and bruised ribs. She was drinking out of a water bottle, laughing at a joke shared with her fellow comrade, Johann. He was being treated for a broken right leg and forced to wait as various shards of glass had to be pulled from his back. They had not been in deep enough to cause spinal damage—thanks to the Kevlar—but he had some decent nerve damage and the size of those pieces made Namarra's military knives look thin.

Namarra saw Athrun take another breath. That was his fifth in as many seconds. "He's pissed," she said, wincing as another splinter was pulled out from her knuckle. That one scraped against the bone that time, she knew it. Then again, her concussion was making her believe she had all sorts of pains. Aside from her damaged hands, she had a good sized bruise on her left knee and a gash in her left index finger.

"Well, we didn't leave much to gather," Sebastian admitted, taking a swig of the offered vodka. At first Namarra had thought he had gotten out unscathed, but the blood droplets she had seen were from a bullet he had taken through the back of the ankle; cut the Achilles. That plus three broken fingers equaled a hard-fought mission.

"Piper," Athrun said, remembering to use her fake name as he took a step in their direction.

"Ah, so it's my fault," she muttered and Namarra smirked. It sucked being best friends with the big cheese.

"Who should I blame then?"

"How about you say thank you?"

Athrun sighed and shook his head. One of his soldiers ran towards him, tapping him on the shoulder and he was pulled away.

"So, why is he mad again?" Johann asked, examining the top of the crate in front of him. He was counting each shard that was pulled from his back and making sure they were all there. That was a better habit than the one he pulled before getting treated. He had ordered his weapon brought to him and started freaking out when the magazine had an even number instead of an odd one. So, to save his own sanity, Sebastian grabbed an odd magazine when he wasn't looking and swapped the two before Johann could start his counting the second time. It worked.

At least until Lexi put an even magazine in its place before he started his third count.

"He's just frustrated because we made a mess," Namarra explained. "He thinks too highly of Piper, I'm afraid."

Lexi frowned and sighed, turning to the side when Athrun came walking back. Namarra couldn't help matching the look. Their original mission might have been to merely secure the complex, but they had managed to take out most of the opposition _and_ gain control of their target. Not to mention, they had managed to send valuable information before the main control room went boom.

"Despite my dislike for the methods," Athrun began, leaning against the same crate that Lexi was sitting on. "I can honestly admit you guys did a good job given the circumstances." He smiled lightly and Namarra gave a sigh of relief. "The EA has been notified. A liaison and some other members will wait for them, but our job here is finished. I can—at the very least—give you all a ride back to Orb."

No one was going to argue that at least.

"Wait!" Johann shouted, holding up his hand. "I have to check and double check the seatbelts and make sure they're working before we go anywhere."

"What if I told you there weren't any?" Athrun said and cocked an eyebrow when Johann started to mutter to himself. The others shook their heads, telling him not to ask.

* * *

_CE 65: Scandinavia_

Namarra didn't like it, but she followed the Buers home. Kai would be proud of her, actually, because she didn't even grumble. In fact, she smiled the whole time. She helped with the cleaning around the house, dusting the rooms in the two story a lot more thoroughly than anyone before her. Not that dusting wasn't attempted, more like it wasn't done well. The person before was consistent, just not good. There were clean streaks on the furniture, but just not _clean_ furniture.

She had just gotten done with the upstairs television room when Mr. Buer walked through the door. "I have great news!" he shouted, Namarra hearing his briefcase falling to the floor in excitement. Mr. Buer wasn't a tall man, so she heard him shuffle across the wood as he made his way to the living room where she last remembered seeing his wife. Mrs. Buer was actually taller than her husband, which often made Namarra chuckle silently, but they worked so well together her laughter was often short lived. The girl stopped cleaning, tiptoeing to the door to listen.

"Darling, what—" Mrs. Buer began, but her husband cut her off.

"I got promoted! Stanton had a heart attack—okay, not the best circumstances—but I'm now Vice President of the company!" Namarra heard Mrs. Buer gasp and then laugh, probably getting swung around by Mr. Buer. "We can finally move; get out of this money pit!"

She stopped listening, backing away from the door when Jasmine and Clotho—have been cleaning the kitchen and bathroom respectively—came in to join the celebration. Setting the duster down on the TV stand, she opened the window and climbed out onto the tree. The descent wasn't too bad. In fact, she got down without dropping more than five feet. Sneaking back to the front door, she opened it, reached around the frame and grabbed her backpack. She didn't want to disturb the happy family.

And she couldn't help feeling jealous.

Rounding the final corner to her house, Namarra slowed. There was a strange car parked across the street. She called it strange not because cars were unfamiliar, but because she had never seen that one before. It had been an unofficial contest of sorts between her and her brother to memorize the vehicles in the area. Sure, it sounded pointless, but it was a way to know who was moving and when. Call it paranoid more than anything. It didn't seem more impressive than the other vehicles in the neighborhood just, "Different," she decided.

"Nam, inside, now!" Kai hissed, pulling his sister's arm hard. The force startled the young Natural at first, but trust was enough to let him drag her inside. After shutting the door, he ran to the window and shut the curtains.

"Kai—"

"It's the orphanage," he said, running over to the couch and propping some of the pillows under a playground ball. Namarra knew what he was up to and nodded, running to the side closet and unscrewing the mop head off its pole. Hurrying back to the kitchen, she plopped it on top of her extra large teddy bear already sitting at the kitchen table.

The finishing touches meant turning off the front lamps, turning on the ones in the back and then turning on the radio. Namarra moved without being ordered, sitting down at the kitchen table and pulling a study book out of her backpack. Slamming it on the wood, she started making idle conversation with the teddy, exaggerating her movements for the unwanted viewers outside. Kai played his part well too, setting down a dinner plate in front of the playground ball and interacting as enthusiastically with the object as he could.

To any onlooker, they looked like a happy family.

It was well after dinner time when the car drove off and the two settled down again to make their own meal.

"I wish they'd just leave us alone," Kai whispered, but Namarra still heard.

She always heard.

She would tell him about the Buers later.

* * *

_**A/N:**_So, what'd you think? It's a fresh review slate so I wonder who's going to give me the very first review. XD Hm, how about whomever reviews first gets a character in my story (if you want to, of course). What I've been doing with my good friends is turning _them_ into characters. They pick the name, looks and possible profession (and quirks; I _love_ quirks) but I've been molding the characters to fit where I need them. For example, I need some fellow comrades on missions, contacts to get both information and supplies, plus, I might even need some friends for Yzak, etc. There's many new characters I need for the past events as well. Anyway, I'd like to do that for the first reviewer, but if anyone is interested, please PM me and we can sculpt the character together.

I wanted to mention something about the rating shift since _Weapon's Waltz_. I didn't want to change _Waltz_'s rating mainly because I had started with it and didn't get into too much violence worthy of the mature rating until later in the story. Knowing where my story ended up, I probably should have changed it to Mature, but in the end decided not to. This one, however, I'm pushing up to Mature, just knowing my niche probably won't change when it comes to my more violent scenes. Plus, my characters like to swear.

Special thanks to my Beta, _Death-Scimitar_. She's been with me since Day 0 and I don't have a grand enough vocabulary to express how much I appreciate her helping me muddle through this story. If I had virtual, FanFiction money to pay her, she'd be rich.

Please let me know what you all think about this new format. With no real timeline for me to be bound to, I get a lot of free reign in this story so if you have any suggestions, feel free to share. A lot of things can happen in two years, so if you have ideas, send me a PM.

* * *

_**Corrections to the Narrative:**_

Nothing so far. It's only the first chapter.

* * *

_**Questions/Gripes:**_

Nothing yet! Kinda nice. :P

* * *

Thank you everyone for your support and I hope you liked the first chapter of the _Weapon's Waltz_ sequel. I'll see you all in the next chapter!

_Strata_


	2. Fighting's Fair In Love And War

Fighting's Fair In Love And War

_CE 65: Scandinavia_

Kai and Namarra took a different route to school after the orphanage incident. The Genbrets understood; they rarely argued against not taking them to school if the two of them gave a reason. They went back to saying goodbye to their "parents" every morning—just in case anyone was still keeping tabs on them. Their real parents—not these makeshift models—had generally worked from home so them not stepping outside wasn't unusual.

"Yo, Kai!" Clotho yelled, waving his hand above his head as they approached the school. Jasmine waved at them too, but went to go see her friends instead. Namarra waved back to her, but stayed with the guys.

"Guess what, man," Clotho continued, skipping in step with them after he wrapped an arm over Kai's shoulders. "My pa got a promotion."

"Really?" Kai asked, Namarra thankful he didn't see her guilty look. "So what does that mean for you guys?"

Clotho shrugged, the movement seeming a bit strained. Perhaps his posture had been permanently damaged from his gaming escapades. "That's up to my parents. All I know is more games are in my future." He rubbed his hands together and Kai rolled his eyes. Despite that, they shared a laugh.

"Hey, White Mage." Clotho turned to her then. "Where'd you disappear to yesterday?"

"Disappear?" Kai cut in. "You told me you went to the Buers."

"I did—"

"She did," Clotho confirmed.

"Once your dad came home, I split. Thought you guys could use a little space."

"Oh, well, we were actually gonna have you both over for dinner to celebrate." Namarra was touched, but hoped her face didn't give anything away. Clotho didn't need any more teasing fuel. "How about tonight?" he continued. "Supper on us?"

Kai smiled, not even having to look at Namarra to know her thoughts. "We'd love to, thanks."

As if on cue, the bell rang, indicating ten minutes until classes started. Kai said goodbye to Namarra and walked off with Clotho, the two of them laughing at some joke. Namarra walked to her classroom alone, but smiled and joined her friends inside before classes started.

* * *

_CE 72 January 29: Space_

It was just another day at the guys' apartment. Heine was drinking a soda on the couch mainly because he was about to go into work and alcohol on the breath was frowned upon. Neither Lexi nor Namarra could see what he was watching on the television, but since he had been having a bad week so far—something about being overworked and underappreciated—they figured he was watching something with a lot of gore.

The girls and Lathan were at the bar, Lathan putting some equipment onto the counter as Lexi and Namarra leaned forward to see why he had called them over.

"Lexi, I managed to transfer the CA out of the Decay and into this." Lathan held up her laptop, one she only vaguely remembered giving to him. She had to start keeping track of her valuables. The CA (Communication Alteration) he was talking about was the device he had created for Lexi's mobile suit, the Stealth, and Namarra's suit, the Decay. The Stealth was space debris, but the CA—known to her as Coffee Addict—had transferred itself to the Decay to save its virtual life. There it spent some quality time with its twin, Chicabo App, or just Chicabo. Basically, they were special computer systems with attitudes that dwelt in the girls' ears.

Literally.

Lexi touched the earpiece in her right ear, pushing in a small button. Despite Coffee Addict's unwanted social commentary, she missed her full time computer companion and not just one that tapped in whenever the hell it felt like it. After all, they had been partners throughout most of the Bloody Valentine War.

"Addict, nice to hear from you again."

"Wish the feeling was mutual. This means my vacation is over," replied the metallic alto. The voice had gradually changed over the war, starting out in the monotonic computer timbre and now having shifted towards a more emotional toddler.

"Sorry to ruin your beach time."

"Anyway," Lathan continued, cutting into their conversation. "I didn't change any of the basic features, but with it being in a computer and not a mobile suit, the duties are limited. It can still function outside its perimeters, but Namarra's CA will probably be the go to when it comes to immediate information."

"Do I have to keep the computer on at all times?"

Lathan shook his head. "It'll be able to access any information the computer can offer as well tap into any other system in your general vicinity. Make sure it doesn't go overboard though because the last thing we need is for Addict to get caught in some governmental system. Try talking your way out of that one."

She cringed and Namarra gave a curt laugh. "Any other updates I should know about?"

"I guess you could consider that a total rewrite of the initial system because it had to get better formatted for a world outside of a MS. I'll be making the same adjustments to Chicabo pretty soon, so you'll both be in constant contact with any and everything all at the same time."

"Fantastic," Namarra grumbled. "You mean they're gonna be even more pompous than they were before? I'm so excited."

Lathan's eyebrows deepened into a frown. "You _should_ be grateful. After all, with all the mission you two will be going through you're gonna need the extra help."

"Relax, bro, we're thankful." Lexi elbowed her teammate and made a face. It was very unwise to not be appreciative of Lathan's generosity.

Namarra seemed to get the hint and changed the subject. "Any news on that old computer we brought back from Mendel?" she asked, the noise on the television audibly getting quieter as Heine's interest in their conversation grew.

Lathan's head twitched back towards Heine's sitting position before returning to the girls. He was getting better at keeping his senses under control, but he had been just as animated as Heine was before the accident. That wasn't something easy to get rid of. "Nope, nothing yet. I have to rebuild a lot of the mainframe and, unfortunately, my optics project isn't moving as quickly as I would have hoped."

"I've offered to help—" Heine began, but Lathan held up a hand.

"If I can't do it on my own then what's the point?"

Heine rolled his eyes and made some obscene motion, but said nothing more. Apparently, that had been a common argument.

"Getting help doesn't mean it isn't worth it."

"Sis, please." It was interesting to see that Lathan could still get visibly angry despite all the damage to the nerves around his eyes. It made Lexi worry enough that she didn't press, however, she made eye contact with the other two in the room. They were all thinking the same thing.

Perhaps Lathan was going through a form of depression after all.

"Here's your contact information for tomorrow. Don't miss this one because we need that weapons smuggler. He's the largest buyer and seller to our mysterious EA black market dealer and these two contacts can get the ball rolling for us."

The girls couldn't argue against that.

* * *

_CE 72 January 30: Space_

Lexi blinked, seeing Namarra coming up the other set of stairs. They had both left at the same time to meet their respective contacts. As far as she knew, they were two different addresses and she had her phone on her so if there was some kind of problem Namarra could have just called her.

"Lexi?" Namarra asked, being the first of the two to say something. They walked to meet each other in the middle of the hallway, their shoes slapping comfortably on the ruby carpet. Namarra pointed to the piece of paper in her hand. "How did you get here? What about your rendezvous?"

Lexi grabbed the paper from the Natural's hand and compared it to her own. Sure enough, they were different—name and everything—but if that was the case, how did they end up in the same building?

Namarra pointed behind her to the stairwell she had come up. "The stairs I took seemed to wrap awkwardly around the building and the address I have isn't exactly the same. The numbers are upside down here." A fingernail ran under the numbers and Lexi nodded. It was a clever trick making the 1669 address look like 1996.

"I entered from the other side of the building." Lexi thumbed to her left. "If you have the right street." She paused, taking a moment to look at the street name listed on her form. "Then—yup—mine was your street spelled backwards."

"Then how'd you find the building?"

"There's a silver plaque in the back with it all spelled out."

"Oh."

Both began to smirk, starting to like their new contacts a little more. They were still suspicious, however, if anything because the two of them ended up at the same door at the same time. Ambush? Nodding, they turned to the only door in the hallway and held in a laugh. The room number said 1669, but the last three numbers were flipped, the 6s dangling 9s and the 9 an upside down 6.

"This should be interesting."

Namarra turned the door handle, Lexi having her comfortable 9mm snug in her right palm. Once there was a crack in the door, the redhead pushed it open and swung her weapon inside. Immediately, Lexi felt it. It was probably more of an instinct, but—sure enough—once Lexi ducked, a knife stuck in the wall where she had just been. "Nam—"

"Saw it," was all she said before she aimed her handgun and shot at the defense mechanism before it could release another weapon. She started stepping in, but Lexi held up a hand to make her stop. Namarra was about to ask when she looked in front of her, a small glint catching her eye. Attached to the end of the knife was a piece of fishing wire. She lost the direction of it, but knew it didn't go back to the machine she had just destroyed. Most likely, the string would distract the intruder enough—not to mention pull enough—to allow the next hidden weapon to make its own crimson artwork on the wall.

"Damn."

Lexi nodded at the comment, staying silent as she surveyed the room. The redhead had gotten curious the moment Namarra showed up at the other end of the building, but now she was beyond curious and to the point of her military paranoia. This building was too large for just one apartment. From the outside, it looked like a typical building; windows with different curtains, balconies with plants—but some with furniture—and even multiple room numbers and names on the mailboxes below. If this was a functioning apartment building, where were all the rooms?

"Lexi, look at those paintings," Namarra said, slowly stepping in behind her.

Lexi looked at the walls, seeing the artwork her comrade was talking about. The walls were littered with family photos and even some original artwork. The curious thing, however, was that none of the people in the photos matched. Almost as if the original photos that came with the frames were still in there.

"Let me try something." The Natural wiggled the phone from her pocket, flipping it open so the inside light could illuminate the room. Well, another hallway was a more appropriate way to describe it. There were some smaller, red lights lining the walls at the bottom reminding Lexi of the emergency lights in the aisle of an airplane. They weren't bright enough to illuminate the walls completely so when the light from the phone made the room glow, their situation really came into perspective.

The picture frames still housed the fake photos, but stretching from one of the corners on each frame was another fishing wire. The interesting thing was, no one wire was attached between two of the same frames. Basically, if Namarra had triggered the one fishing wire connected to the knife, there would be a chain reaction that probably wouldn't stop even well after the intruder was dead.

"The artwork is highly flammable too," Lexi noted, pointing to the nearest painting and seeing the hidden lighter lodged in the corner next to the canvas. "So, the intruder dies then the evidence is burned."

Namarra turned the light back to the door and noticed the interesting metal plated there. It looked like steel, but there were little holes poked across it like a strainer.

"A water system," the two said at the same time, but were pointing at two different things. Lexi's focus was on the thicker ropes headed to the ceiling. There were water sprinklers hanging, the ropes attached to the operating mechanism on each one. "The fire burns through the rope then the sprinklers go off. With the time delay, I'd assume they really want to make sure the unwelcomed company is dead."

"I wouldn't doubt more of this metal and holes make up the walls and the floor." Namarra whistled, impressed. "Do you think the owner is paranoid or just likes to show off?"

"Either way, there's no way we're getting through here. We don't have the right equipment."

"Agreed."

Namarra backed out first, leaving room for Lexi to crawl out. They shut the door.

Lexi put her hands on her hips after brushing off. "Well, my contact said he was expecting me at 4:00pm and it's," she checked her watch, "4:03pm." Holstering her gun, she started looking for another way in.

"Same here," was all Namarra could say before a part in the wall opened to reveal a small computer screen. Both girls had their weapons aimed at the device long before the screen even flickered to life, but a 9mm against a computer wasn't even a challenge. There was a face there for a moment, but it faded to black a second later, the device not even looking like it was functioning anymore. The girls looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes.

"Device successfully neutralized," the CAs announced.

"Why'd you do that?" both girls asked their respective mechanical consciences.

"The transmission was linked to a set of explosives centralized in this hallway."

"Ah." It was really the only thing that could be said.

Then their phones rang.

Both answered, but didn't speak until the voices on the other end did.

"Sorry—uh—about everything. We didn't expect you, I guess."

"What do you mean you didn't expect me? We set up the meeting time together." Namarra was having a similar conversation next to her.

"No, I talked to a man."

"Who said a girl would be meeting you. I'm sure he gave you a detailed description too." Lathan may not have noticed the addresses, but Lexi knew he would have done that much beforehand.

"Yes, but—"

"Do I not look like his description?"

"No, but—"

"And am I not here at the meeting time?"

"Yes, but—"

"And you _are_ Sean, right?"

"Yes, but you see—"

"So, what the fuck is the problem? We could both be ash right now and all you have to say is, oops?"

"I didn't know my roommate was having a meeting too, so I thought you two were here to rip me off."

"Roommate?" Lexi turned to Namarra, the Natural saying the same thing.

"Yes, roommate. I was going to explain when the screen malfunctioned." Lexi decided she shouldn't mention Coffee Addict's role in that.

"Just let us in, would ya?"

"Y-yes, of course," he stammered and a different door opened. In fact, the wall to her right shifted, the outline of a door collapsing in the concrete and then falling inward to reveal an opening. Lexi and Namarra walked to it and peered inside. It was another hallway, but this one was lined with videos, magazines, books and video games all stacked up haphazardly. In fact, it looked more like a fire trap than the actual fire trap did.

"It's safe, I promise," Sean said.

"For your sake you better be right."

They both hung up and walked through the doorway.

A head met them first, a ripple of brown—almost black—hair swishing across the forehead. "You the two from Hermes?"

Namarra spoke first. "You Noah?"

"Or Sean?" Lexi added, her hand twitching next to her 9mm. She knew Namarra was doing the same.

"Yes," was the only response and the head disappeared. Truthfully, it was probably attached to a body, but if it didn't start taking this meeting seriously it wouldn't be attached much longer.

The door opened and a young man stood there in jeans and a t-shirt saying, "My MA is better than your MA." So young, in fact the two girls hesitated for a moment. They had each expected older individuals and based on Lathan's prior research, they should have been. Perhaps this was the son of one contact?

Or both?

They glanced at each other out of the corner of their eyes.

"Please, come in," the young man said, directing them inside. He couldn't have been older than eighteen.

Another individual—about the same age—met them at the door before they could get too far. Lexi—having gone in first—actually jumped a little, her fingers wrapped around the handle of her gun and the weapon out of its holster before the young man could smile. He had blonde and black hair, that being the only way to really describe the locks on his head. While the first individual they had run into had a wavy sort of hairdo, this one had choppy hair that made his head look like a spiky weapon of its own. With khaki pants, a white shirt, green scarf and tattoos on both arms it was hard to really see him as a threat.

"Hello, sorry for the scare."

Lexi wasn't sure if he was talking about the hallway of death or his greeting.

"My name's Sean." He extended a hand and Lexi put her gun away to shake it. His arm twisted as he shook her hand, a tattoo on the under part of his arm grabbing her attention. It was so fleeting she couldn't see more than a date.

"Nice to meet you," she said, trying not to show her disappointment concerning her unsated curiosity.

"Piper?" The redhead nodded. "Ah, then you're here to meet me."

"And Coda?" the other man—with the MA t-shirt—said, ready to shake Namarra's hand.

She took it. "Noah?"

"Well, since we're all here together, why don't we have the meeting together too? Uh, what were your names again?" Sean asked, shifting further into the room. "Shifting" was really the only way she could describe his movement. The comics and video game cases extended into the apartment, stacking up beside the walls like a fort, leaving just enough room for a path. If they had been living in Medieval times she would have been looking to the sky for trebuchets.

"Piper."

"And Coda."

"Ah, got it."

"Ignore the mess." Noah smiled and shrugged at the same time, probably not really caring what the two of them thought about the clutter. And based on his immediate change of subject he was used to his roommate's lack of short term memory.

Once they passed though the stacks, the hallway opened up to an apartment. The living room held the typical television bolted to the wall, but instead of couches, there were lawn chairs opened on the carpet. One was even a lounge chair, if some company came over, apparently. There wasn't a dining room table to be accounted for, more like four television trays lined up in a bundle, forming what could have been called a table. Fast food wrappings lay open on the tops, with a mixture of soda and beer cans on the floor underneath. One had even been full and spilled all over, giving off the lovely aroma of Root Beer.

"Please, come this way—uh Pina," Sean continued, now reminding Lexi more of a butler than their potential technical contacts.

"Piper."

"Got it."

Leading them to the rear of the apartment, the four of them passed by two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a couple of closets before they reached the very last room. Remembering what the outside hall looked like, Lexi couldn't imagine the apartment even being half the size of the building. "Oh, could you turn around for a second?" Sean asked. The frown on the girls' faces must have been scary because he smiled sheepishly and pointed to the keypad next to the door. "I need to put in a password."

"They shouldn't even bother," Addict chimed in Lexi's ear. "We could break through that in a heartbeat."

"Sure," the redhead responded anyway, turning away to face a creepily-smiling Noah. Namarra gave a loud sigh, but did the same. Five beeps later, the door opened.

"The password is: 05126." Lexi ignored her CA and followed Sean inside.

Really, it wasn't so much they went inside the room as they went down more stairs. Instead of the door leading to the last room in the apartment, it opened to an artist's studio and a set of metal stairs. The trapdoor had already been opened, but the redhead knew as soon as that slab of metal was slammed into place, there would be no indication of the secret stairwell.

"This is getting ridiculous." Despite the whining, Lexi could only agree with her comrade.

"Almost there. I figured you'd want to see our good stuff—uh, Carman."

"Coda."

"Got it."

Lexi really wasn't sure what Sean had meant by the statement, "the good stuff," and given their college age, it could be taken as suspicious. "Show away," Lexi heard Namarra say, figuring the two of them were on the same page. Despite the impressive show in the other hallway, these two looked harmless.

She rested her fingers on her gun anyway.

At the bottom of the stairs was an impressive room, expanding the entire area of the apartment building. On one side was a big screen television, so big Lexi knew they hadn't bought it in any store but had built it themselves using multiple television screens. Chairs, beanbags, coolers and headsets we surrounding the screen, the redhead even eyeing a popcorn machine off to the side. Next to that was a door—to the bathroom, most likely—and then an enclosed room with glass so people could see inside. Based on the equipment, it looked like some kind of lab, but with all the metal scraps lying around, it was probably a place they could build—well—anything. She only hoped there was some kind of air duct to let out the fumes. Given their combined intelligence, however, there was bound to be one of the highest quality. The rest of the large area consisted of computers—lots of computers: old models, new models, and even models Lexi had never even seen before.

If Lathan hadn't been blind, she was sure he would have an orgasm on the spot.

"We hear you're the ones to talk to about moving some equipment for us, and based on this show, you're the ones we're looking for," Lexi said, her eyes narrowing slowly as the sentence went on. The reactions on their contacts' faces weren't exactly the ones she was looking for. Based on their initial introduction, she would have called these two intelligent, but either they also had a couple sly bones in their bodies or they were clueless as to why the meeting was even set up.

"Why do you look so surprised?" Namarra asked, picking up on the same train of thought as her comrade. "All of this was discussed before."

"Ah, well, it might be more fear than surprise, actually," Sean explained. He scratched the back of his head, giving obvious side glances to his roommate.

"And why is that?" Lexi asked.

"Well, we—uh—kinda had—um—you see there was this falling out and—um."

Namarra cut into Noah's stammering. "Describe, 'falling out'."

"It was this whole big thing—and you might even like to hear the story. You see, there was a package mixed up and a donkey—named Asshford with two Ss—funny, huh? Anyway, he was sent—"

Lexi sighed, shaking her head and turning away. If either of the two had noticed her frustration they didn't show it. They were too engrossed in the story anyway, Noah resorting to pantomiming Asshford in a rather disturbing way while Sean pretended to be their ex-contact. Or so that was the conclusion she came to. After they had started jumping up on their chairs and making baboon noises, the two girls kicked their chairs, sent them sprawling onto the floor and then getting back to the lovely time in the conversation where Sean and Noah were terrified of them.

"Long story short." Noah gulped. "We're not really on good terms with him anymore."

"And what does it take to get back in his good graces?" Lexi held out a hand to Noah and pulled him to his feet. Instead of releasing his hold, however, she grabbed his right hand with her left and twisted it hard, putting his arm into an uncomfortable lock. After his initial whimper, she changed her hold slightly and twisted further.

"We have other people we can contact," Sean began, taking a step over to try and help roommate, but Namarra put and leg in front of him to stop his path.

"We need this particular one. That's why we contacted you guys."

"So, in well with the bad guys, how?" Lexi loosened the lock slightly just to turn it abruptly once more.

"Well, he does get a hard on for shipments of, let's say, maximum finesse."

Lexi frowned at her captive's choice of wording. A little too vague for her tastes. "We have two large containers filled with Beta-tested nuclear reactor cores for the MS."

"Beta-tested?" Sean's question probably quivered a bit more than he would have liked.

"As of this moment, the only ones to have perfected the nuclear reactor core are ZAFT engineers and they are keeping that information under lock and key. We have access to the initial research and have done some modifications of our own to perfect it." Lexi gave a coy smile, one that actually caused a sheepish one to slide onto Noah's lips. In truth, the shipment was a total fake, but their two contacts didn't need to know that. All their mission entailed was catching the seller in the act. Backlash was to be expected.

But _their_ obvious catch on that backlash wasn't.

"What's in it for us?"

Namarra frowned at Noah's demand. "Do you really need for me to go cliché on you?" His face showed he either didn't get the reference or he was in so much pain his face had contorted that way. "Your lives, for starters."

"If this whole thing goes sour, we lose our shiny reputations," Sean explained, his index finger accenting as much as a creepy uncle looking for a kid to pull his finger. "Not only will we have a whole lot of unshiny people chasing after us, but we'll be out of our jobs."

"And as college students—well, you know, we kind of need money," Noah finished, his sheepish smile arching into a pleasant kind of pathetic.

Neither Lexi nor Namarra really knew the whole relationship between college students and money—more like desperate obsession—but they did understand the basics of an operation going south. "What did you have in mind?"

"An internship—"

"_Paid _internship," Sean interjected.

"—at Morgenroete in Orb. We know Hermes has contacts there."

Lexi's initial response was going to be, "No," but Namarra stepped in. "We'll have to get back to you on that. How about this, you get back in good graces and we'll talk to our people. If anything, having your contact back is still a tally in the win column." Sean and her shook hands while Lexi let go of Noah's arm. She, on the other hand, wasn't going to bother with formalities.

Somehow she doubted Erika was going to like the idea.

* * *

_CE 65: Scandinavia_

"Kai, another fight?" Namarra asked, running to the kitchen and soaking a washcloth in cold water. Unfortunately, getting ice meant running downstairs to the freezer and chipping off some of the buildup. Since she was upset, he could to it himself.

"You know it wasn't my fault. These kids just jumped us and Clotho's big mouth didn't help matters. He was all bragging about his dad getting the promotion, calling the guys twats—ow!" He winced when Namarra applied pressure with the washcloth. "I tried to pull him away—"

"But your glasses are busted and you have a short shift at work. Not to mention there's this growing grapefruit over your eye and no doubt Clotho has a matching bruise so how do we explain that to the Buers?"

"It'll be fine, stop worrying," he grumbled, but neither of them seemed convinced by the words. His eye appointment wasn't until the next day and he needed those glasses to see at work. If he slacked off, he could get fired. What would they do then?

Clotho hadn't started the fight, Namarra knew. In fact, she was pretty certain Kai had said something offensive, got the group of guys heated and then Clotho added fireworks to the explosion. As soon as that happened, a fight was bound to begin. Namarra had tried making sense of it, but her young mind was still having trouble trying to grasp the fact that her brother had gotten into another fight and had to go to work with a blackening eye and busted glasses.

They each took a breath to steady themselves, experience proving that getting mad at each other would solve only one thing.

Nothing.

"Finish your homework for the night and then head over to the Buers. Maybe we can stay after a couple hours too. With them moving, they'll probably agree to give us a little extra money if we helped out."

"Yes, Kai," she muttered, but one stern look made her recognize her childish tone. It just didn't seem fair though that Kai could get in the fight and yet she was still treated as the juvenile.

"I'll clean up then head to work for a half shift." Standing, he walked across the living room and put a soft hand on her head, ruffling her hair. "I'll meet you at the Buers, okay?"

She nodded.

"And, Nam?" he added. "I'm sorry this keeps happening."

Looking up, she forced a smile. "It'll get better, right? Someday things'll get better?"

Kai smiled, but either his was genuine or he just faked it a whole lot better than she was able to. "Of course, Namarra."

* * *

_CE 72 February 2: Orb_

"And that was the tour." Erika Simmons spun, the large bandages noticeable on her face, but her overly excitable expression would have said otherwise. Since she had willingly walked into the reconstructive surgery—after she had saved Lathan from a burning inferno and got injured in the process—she should look happy about having new skin on the previously burned side of her face. No one had thought the scars were crippling, but it was her decision and they were going to support it.

Other than the bandages, she looked younger than when she was aboard the Kusanagi. In her thirties, she was glowing. A radiance that could really only mean she had been home for a while and was spending time with her husband and young son. It was inspiring, actually, her once fading honey brown hair now had shine and hung with a bounce around her shoulders.

"It's amazing how little of this had been destroyed in the attack," Namarra mentioned, slipping her arms behind her back. Both she and Lexi were dressed in the orange and blue uniform designated to Morgenroete researchers. Murrue Ramius and Erika wore the same, but while the two younger females still had the crisp wrinkles of "just out of the package," theirs were well-used.

"Much of it was lost, but one of the first things the Rymyrs," Murrue nodded to Lexi in mention of the redhead's parents, "set out to do was rebuild this facility." Murrue looked more relaxed in her researcher uniform than in her captain one back in the war. Seeing as she had lost two lovers in the same war and suffered so many hardships under the Earth Alliance, the relaxation was a given. Murrue's brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail, odd for the thirty-something ex-soldier, but flattering as well. Seeing the beads of sweat on her brow meant she had been working hard that morning.

"I'll never deny their intelligence," Lexi said, probably the most honest statement she had made about her parents since Namarra could remember. Lexi had had a terrible relationship with her parents, the two of them never agreeing with the redhead's decision to join the ZAFT military. The Rymyrs had been pacifists in every extremity of the word. The fact that they had not only agreed to reopen Morgenroete—a military development and research facility—but the fact that they personally had put themselves in charge of it was saying something. These were the same people who had exiled their own daughter after the Battle of Orb.

There was a moment of silence before Erika spoke up again. Namarra didn't miss her involuntary brush across the bandages. In fact, the older woman had purposely come in today to meet them. She was, technically, off for another month as she recovered and got some deserved rest. "Shall we?" She motioned them down the hall and to a stairwell leading up to an observatory/computer room. "This part of the building wasn't damaged during the battle so all of our research was saved," Murrue explained. "Kira had actually designed the Mobile Suit OS we now use for the Astrays. Our people have been tweaking the program, but there have been no huge improvements."

"Which is good, in a way," Erika broke in. "That gives you guys a chance to add in whatever you want to."

"And what do you want us to do, exactly," Namarra asked. "I'm sure the CAs are involved, but we don't know what you want us to accomplish here."

Erika nodded and held up her index finger. "We have this little competition going on and was wondering if you two could help out a little. Lathan's been teasing us with this new cockpit and OS idea, but won't let us in on any of the details."

"We don't know anything either if that's what you're asking," Lexi said.

Murrue shook her head. "He can do whatever he wants. We just want a little help in upgrading the system that Kira had started. If you think of any new ideas, throw 'em at us and we'll try to incorporate them."

Namarra and Lexi looked at each other. Really, neither of them could say no, but there was still the lingering question. "Why don't you just ask Kira to do this? He's a bit more qualified. At least more so than me," Namarra admitted.

The older women exchanged a look and neither girl missed it. "Kira's been—"

"—avoiding this place entirely," Erika finished for Murrue. "He won't even look at the Freedom and has even suggested it be destroyed."

That was surprising. "Are you going to?" Namarra asked.

Both women shook their heads instantly and there was a relieved sigh to pass between the four. "Lacus is sticking her nose in. We'll just leave it at that."

That was more than what Namarra thought she would get out of them anyway. "Before we begin, though." The Natural caught Lexi's glance and they nodded to each other. "We have a proposition we need to pass by you."

"Why doesn't that sound comforting?" Murrue asked, her suspicion evident.

"You know we're connected with Hermes, right?" The women nodded and Namarra continued, "We're trying to catch a weapons dealer by dangling some nuclear bait. The problem right now is, the contacts we're going through could lose everything after the exchange is done."

"And they're wanting collateral?" Murrue said it more as a statement than as a question. She knew the game by that time and Erika was starting to purse her lips, awaiting her dislike of the outcome.

Lexi nodded. "They're college students in space and want a paid internship here in Morgenroete."

"Hah!" Erika laughed, no real humor in the sound. "You want us to hire criminals into our government military facility?"

"Just put them in some limited internship program with little to no access to the mainframe. Hell, talk to Kisaka or Athrun and get a police detail on them."

"That's a lot to ask for a mission that isn't—technically—even funded or approved by the Orb government, Lexi." The redhead knew it would take a lot in order to get Erika on board—and even Murrue would have taken some work—but she honestly didn't know how to do it. Namarra and her had gone over some scenarios in their heads, but—

Wait, that was it.

"What if I told you Namarra and I will help out here as much as we can if you can do _something_ to help out these two students."

"So, now we can't even get some work for free?" Erika was frowning and Murrue was her twin on the matter.

Lexi sighed. "Don't you guys have some contract work the two can be a part of? With all of these Coordinators, ex-soldiers, etcetera on your staff, I'm certain you can come up with some way to keep out two overzealous young adults."

"And who knows," Namarra continued, "maybe they're just two jaded college kids who ended up walking down the wrong path in life and you could change their lives."

Neither woman replied right away, exchanging glances between each other that looked more like a silent conversation. Lexi turned to Namarra and had much the same conversation, just trying to go over their other options if the final answer was no. Another idea was for the two of them to be their personal, on-call bodyguards, but adding that to their already long list of duties just seemed like overkill. But if that was the only solution, they would have to make it work. Besides, two hackers, computer geniuses and very well contacted teenagers might not be bad allies.

"We'll get back to you on that," Erika said at last, Murrue nodding her agreement. It really didn't look convincing though. "Can you at least give us a hand right now though despite our potential contract?"

"Yup," the girls replied, stepping up to the large computer system.

Namarra cracked her fingers as she sat down at the consol. Lexi was far better than her at any of the technical stuff, mainly because her brain had never been wired that way. She had always let the geeks handle the tweaks and she would go out and test the product. In this matter, however, her being a Natural and a pilot made a huge impact. Lexi would often run thoughts by her, trying to gauge where the Natural limits ended and how to advance them without putting too much strain on the individual. Despite having been through some drastic ordeals in her youth, Namarra had never felt inferior to Coordinators until then. Not like she didn't think she could stand up against them anymore, it was more like she noticed her limits and felt a bit belittled. Sure, she knew that honing those limits and even pushing them as far as they could go was the reason she was such a good fighter, but somehow putting them down on paper and transferring them into 1s and 0s made her feel insignificant.

Lexi must have noticed because next thing Namarra felt was a hand on her shoulder. She didn't even realize she had been staring at the screen without typing anything. "Wanna test out the upgrades?"

Namarra smiled. "Of course."

* * *

_CE 72 February 8: Orb_

"So, how are you adjusting to the dramatic lives of the rich and famous?" Lexi asked, smirking behind her coffee cup. She knew her cousin didn't like the spotlight, but also knew that if she wanted to win any kind of election and walk down the same path as her father, she would have to swallow the publicity. For as long as Lexi had known Cagalli Yula Attha, however, that was one of the hardest things she could ever pull off.

The two were sitting at one of the local cafes, close enough to the Cabinet building that Cagalli didn't have to hurry back to her meetings if she didn't want to. She was required to sit in on many of the meetings, but with such a short distance to walk she would have longer to talk to Lexi. Despite the normal desire to keep a low profile, Cagalli was wearing her Representative outfit, a fitted, white pantsuit adorned with military insignias and golden clasps. She looked quite dashing in the ensemble, but Lexi could never figure out how she always kept it so clean. Lexi was actually dressed up for the day, wearing some black pants and a nice sweater. The last time she had met her cousin for a coffee break she had been wearing jeans and a sweatshirt while Cagalli had worn her formal attire. Since neither girl was able to keep herself away from the local tabloids, Lexi had been publicly mocked for "dressing like a bum" while having a sit down with Orb's Representative. Typically, Lexi didn't care about her public appearance, but with Cagalli's reputation the way it was—and the fact that the redhead's happened to swing back and forth depending on whether or not the people wanted to like her that day—some formal wear was needed.

"Now you're just making fun of me," Cagalli remarked, putting down her tea cup, but still keeping both hands wrapped around the outside, warming them. It was a cool morning for Orb. Despite the typically steady island temperatures, some mornings—especially during the winter—were crisp, almost to the point of something thicker than a sweatshirt or coat. "It would be so much easier to swallow if my cousin wouldn't keep butting in."

Lexi nodded. Yuna Seiran had been the ones ruling just after Orb was attacked in the Bloody Valentine war. The Seirans had been ruling alongside Lexi's parents, but after their tragic death, the Seirans took on all responsibilities. Yuna played no small part in that ruling and many of the Orb citizens loved him for it. Cagalli needed a little more than her hero status to be considered for a high position and if she wanted to do anything to help out her country, she had to be creative. Unfortunately, Yuna and his father, Yunato, had come up with a plan before she could.

Yuna marrying Cagalli.

"From an unbiased opinion—which I really don't have, but I can fake it—it's a good move on their part. Yuna's popularity and Orb's own hero? Come on, what more good publicity do you need?"

"But Lexi, you know that—"

"Yeah, yeah, you love Athrun, I know." The redhead smiled despite the sour taste creeping under her tongue. "But if you want to turn Orb back around to the way your father had it, this is still an option."

"Yes," she sighed, "I know. But is it really too much to ask to want to marry who I want?"

"Orb's kinda jumped back a few years," Lexi said, leaning back in her chair and bringing the coffee to her lips. "It's like we're back in ancient times when kings and queens were married for advantage and nothing more. I never thought your father's ideals would be stomped on this badly. For such a forward-thinking individual, this country is pretty backwards."

"Lexi, please, this is still our home." Cagalli didn't look as sure as she sounded, however, and she refused to make eye contact. It was impressive to see her love her country so much that she would defend it even if she didn't agree with it. Talk about tough love.

"Alright, alright, no need to get bent out of shape. Why don't you tell me how everyone's doing?"

She gave a small smile at that. "You've only been gone a month."

"And a lot can change in that amount of time. Wasn't that how long it took for the world to plunge into insanity and unleash nukes and GENESIS on each other?"

She frowned. "You had to remind me?"

"How can any of us forget?" Lexi shook her head and urged her to continue.

"Well, Murrue's officially under employment at Morgenroete." Lexi nodded, silently saying she had seen the woman a couple days before. "I didn't necessarily offer the okay, but they've been fixing up the Archangel and then putting it in storage."

"Is that really a good idea?"

Cagalli did a half shrug. "Whether we like to admit it or not, the world may just end up the same way that it was before. When that happens, we can't be so off guard."

"Off guard? Orb was already building five advanced mobile suits by the time it even took off. I'd call that being 'on guard' before. Not to mention the Archangel was already done and running. Hell, I'm confident it was already weaponized."

"All of that aside," Cagalli muttered, giving her a less than healthy look. "The Archangel is a symbol of everything Orb stands for. We can't just disassemble it and act as if nothing ever happened."

"I'm assuming it's the same idea behind keeping the Freedom intact?"

"So, you heard about that, huh?"

"Namarra and I got a tour of Morgenroete about a week ago. We've been going there often and Murrue and Erika have been rather loose with information. You'd think we were trustworthy or something." Lexi smirked and Cagalli matched the look, knowing full well her reputation's rollercoaster track. Ever since Lexi had been exiled from Orb less than a year ago, she had been blamed for a number of things, Lexi and Lathan's parents' assassination being one of them. That whole ordeal had been thanks to the radical group called SIN-ED—it was a long story involving some old comrades of Lexi's gone rogue who wanted to change the world and ended up brutally killed in the end—but not even Orb citizens were above finger pointing. If Lexi's reputation was poor that day, Cagalli and her were typically accompanied by guards, but she must have been in good standing for their coffee break because they were alone.

"We shouldn't be discussing any of the specifics, but I'm not exactly against what Murrue and Erika are proposing." She spun the glass in her hands, looking down at the contents a bit too intently than Lexi was used to. There was something on her mind. Probably the real reason Cagalli had asked the two of them to meet. She opened her mouth to speak, but closed it, took a pen out of her pocket and wrote something on the paper napkin at her side. Looking around, she folded it then handed it across to Lexi.

Cocking an eyebrow, the redhead took the napkin and put down her glass. Doing her own area check—to make sure no unwanted attention was drawn to them—she opened it slightly to read the contents.

"I might be PG."

Good thing Lexi had stopped drinking because she would have either spilled the liquid all over herself or spit it in Cagalli's face. Either way, neither reaction was appropriate, but her real reaction might have been worse.

"You're _what_?" The whole café turned towards the sound, even if Lexi had managed to keep the comment to a low hiss. Apparently, her control wasn't what it used to be.

Cagalli blushed a deep red as her eyes stared intently at the drink in her hands. She was spinning the china again and Lexi sighed. Reaching out, she put a hand over the blonde's and forced her to look up.

"C'mon," she said, "we're going for a walk."

The two rose from their seats, setting some money down on the table—not really caring that it was over the amount their drinks would have cost—and set out down the street. With Cagalli's attire making her the shiny North Star on the sidewalk, Lexi led her back to the Cabinet building where they could have less prying eyes. There was a nice park near the rear of the building that the two of them had walked many times. That was as private of a place as anything.

Cagalli's hand grew clammy in Lexi's grip as they walked through the crowd so the redhead walked faster, eager to hear the story and—hopefully—put her worries to rest. Finally, they stopped near a group of trees and slipped out of view.

"Explain."

Cagalli did as much as she could, mentioning her lack of birth control while they were in space and their childish eagerness getting in the way of common sense sometimes.

"We've been home for months, Cags."

She nodded. "My period had been…different over the past couple of months and this month, it hasn't come at all."

"Have you been to the doctor or taken a test?"

"Are you kidding?" she squeaked. "I'm Cagalli Yula Attha! Any and everything I do goes into the press. How the hell do you think I can avoid this?"

"You want me to buy a test for you?"

"But then you'd be the one scrutinized!"

Lexi shrugged. "I'll just grab one then claim it was a rumor. My poor one second and good the next kind of reputation might come in handy now. People wouldn't think twice of believing it was a rumor."

She seemed to think about it for a second, her previously glossy eyes starting to clear as she began to calm down. Slowly, she nodded, but her mind was still thinking. "Perhaps I'm overreacting," she said, her toe starting to tap against the grass. "Maybe I should wait a few days—"

"When were you supposed to start?"

"Yesterday."

Lexi nodded. "I'll grab one anyway since things have been funky and keep it at my apartment. If or when you think you need to take it, come over."

Cagalli nodded and smiled. "Thank you."

"No problem."

"You do realize though, if someone sees you and comments on you getting the test, people will start to think Alex Dino is the father."

Well, that was something she forgot to think about. Since Athrun was one of the founders of Hermes, she needed a good reason to have dinners and chat about assignments with him. With his alias in Orb being Alex Dino, no one recognized him as Athrun Zala or knew about his relationship with Cagalli. So, when Lexi and Alex were seen having dinner together one time, well, the rumors flew and the two of them just went with it. Now—according to the tabloids—they were full-on dating which helped cover up his real relationship with Cagalli.

"I'll have Nam grab me one. She's just outside of town right now and no one knows her."

"Please don't tell her who it's really for."

"I won't. She probably won't even ask."

"Thanks."

Lexi smiled again and looked down at her watch, seeing Cagalli do the same thing out of the corner of her eye. "Your meeting's starting soon."

"I guess I should go and be important."

"I guess you should."

"Talk to you later?"

"Always. I'm leaving for space here in a couple of days, but I should be back soon."

Cagalli nodded. "Let me know if anything exciting happens."

"Nothing probably will, but I'll keep you in the loop."

Considering how exciting Lexi's life really was, that statement was rather ironic, but Cagalli was still in the dark about Hermes so, as far as she knew, Lexi just enjoyed travelling.

* * *

_CE 65: Scandinavia _

Namarra had a thought. It wasn't exactly a bad one, but it wasn't a good one either. One of the boys in her class had the bright idea to tease her in gym class that day. Sure, that kind of a thing was a general occurrence when it came to grade school, but somehow that day it seemed extra cruel.

"Nam, all this because Lukas tied your shoelaces together?" hissed her blonde-haired friend Stace. She was a little taller than the young Namarra, but somehow she figured the bun on the top of her head had something to do with that.

"Did you see the scrapes on my knees? That _hurt_." Namarra pointed down to her knees, covered up by some of Jasmine's old jeans.

"He does that to a lot of people," Melody grumbled, the brunette crouching with the other two near Namarra's desk in the back of the classroom. "You're just lucky it wasn't a frog in your—"

"There he is," Namarra said, cutting into her story and nodding to the boy who walked in and took a seat four desks in front of hers. After giving some guys high fives, Lukas sat down and flipped open a book. It somehow seemed cruel for a jock who actually enjoyed reading to be the biggest jerk in the school. If he had been a nice guy, there might not have been such thing as cliques. There they were, however, admiring his slicked back hair and gagging as he put his fingers through his black locks just to lick his finger the next second to turn the page.

"So, what's the plan?" Stace asked, her apparent gagging making the prank look a bit more appealing the more and more he licked his greasy fingers to turn the page.

"We could put some glue on a bookmark and drop it in his book," Melody suggested.

"Gum on the bottom of his shoe," Stace added.

"Ice down his shirt."

"Down his _pants_."

"Dump glitter in his backpack."

"Hair spray his backpack _then_ pour glitter on it."

"Or we could—" Melody began, but stopped. Namarra had one eye closed, her tongue sticking out the left side as she tried to aim a small wad of paper. Swinging her arm back and forth, she finally let loose the pellet and it landed smack dab on his head. Thanks to the gel, it stayed. The girls snickered when Lukas failed to noticed.

Melody made a wad herself, followed by Stace and Namarra started rolling a new one of her own. Before class even began, Lukas's head looked like a mixture between a porcupine and a polka dotted dress just less deadly than the animal and more 3D than the clothing.

And Lukas never even saw.

The teacher didn't arrive until roughly ten minutes later and by that time anyone who had ever been bullied by Lukas had joined in. That must have been one hell of a book because not even the snickers could pull the boy from his concentration and even when the teacher said, "Good afternoon, class," he didn't look up until he had finished the paragraph. By that time the snorts had multiplied.

"Uh, Lukas," the teacher began, Namarra impressed by his self-control (he had also been a victim of Lukas's reign of terror). "Could you stand, please, and read the first paragraph in our assignment for the day."

"Yes, sir," he replied, leaning over to dig out the appropriate book—the paper never even left his head—found the page and stood. All of that movement and still nothing trickled off.

The room burst out laughing, Namarra's distinct voice shouting, "Payback's a bitch," over the uproar.

Ironically, swearing in class was the reason she had gotten detention, not her poor manners.

* * *

"That's the last time I want to hear you got detention," Kai scolded on their way home from school. They were taking the long way back, which even involved a quick pass through the park. Namarra was kicking a rock in front of her, her chin to her chest as she pouted. She had been alright with the detention until Kai had started reprimanding her for her sweet taste of revenge and dirty mouth. "We need to keep a low profile; you know this."

"So, what about when you fight, huh?" The girl wished she could pull back the words as soon as she said them, but her mouth had failed her again. She knew Kai would never hurt her, but there were times she knew his anger had a tendency to get out of control. Perhaps that was a reason he got into so many fights, but she also knew his mouth was just as bad as hers. Even if she knew all of that, however, Namarra tensed, feeling his anger breathe onto her skin like a dragon sleeping on its gold.

"That's different."

"Why, because you don't get caught?" There she went again.

Kai tensed. Namarra could feel it. "Listen here, pipsqueak, you don't understand what—"

A black car drove by slowly at the end of the path, stopping for a moment where the park met the road. Kai pulled Namarra to the side and out of the line of sight, but it really wasn't needed. The car had just paused at a stop sign and nothing more, but the scare was enough to make the siblings practically run back home before nightfall. After padlocking the doors, they cleaned up, changed, and did a little bit of homework before going to bed.

"Kai?" Namarra whispered, turning on her side to face Kai across the room.

"Hm?"

"I'm sorry about today."

The older boy sighed and shuffled to look at her. Without his glasses on he was almost unrecognizable, but the loving twinkle in his eye was familiar. "I know; me too. If there was one thing Mom and Dad promised me after you were born was that we were going to fight so I might as well get used to it."

Good thing that over time the two of them had learned to forgive each other too.

* * *

_CE 72 February 9: Space_

Heine wiped his eyes, trying to ignore the clock on the wall in front of him. His tired body knew the time without that godforsaken machine having to tell him differently. He was where he usually was, surrounded by six empty cubicles and just him typing away in the mainframe. The rest of the staff had left hours ago, but Heine had his fingers tied to too many different—and confidential—documents to allow him a normal work schedule.

Grumbling, he pressed the "Enter" key hard and took vague amusement in the echo the sound made.

"You're working hard."

Heine jumped, his tired mind jerking into active mode. He didn't have to waste the energy though, his superior Gilbert Durandal putting down a coffee mug near the keyboard. Durandal shifted his own mug in between his fingers, the white porcelain blending in with the white lab coat. Heine didn't know much about his superior, only that he was important. With long, black hair, the late twenty-something scientist walked with the ease of a dancer, but his mathematical brain gave Heine the impression he didn't leave the house much when he was a kid. Durandal's charisma, however, made him seem like a Homecoming King. It wasn't hard to like him and with a smile that genuine-looking it was no wonder he got anything he wanted. Heine was suspicious though, because he just felt too good to be true. Apparently, he was the only one who felt that way, however, knowing the new Supreme Council had taken an interest in his political suave. With that repertoire of skills, Durandal often flashed as a threat to Heine's military sixth sense.

"Please, drink. You look exhausted."

At times like this, however, it was hard to imagine him as anything but a good guy.

"Thank you, sir." Heine took a drink of coffee without arguing, the smell alone being enough to awaken his sluggish mind.

"I wish you wouldn't work so hard," Durandal said, stepping away for a moment to pull a chair over from another cubicle. "I like the commitment, but I didn't transfer you here to be a zombie."

_Then why did you transfer me here?_ Heine thought, but knew better than anyone his circumstances if Durandal hadn't intervened. Heine would be rotting in military prison if it wasn't for the scientist. "Just trying to keep up with the work load, sir."

The older man sighed, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his thighs. Staring at the cup, he mindlessly swished the liquid in circles. Heine watched him thoughtfully. He didn't seem his professional self. In fact, the orange-haired soldier didn't even think he had seen him without sitting with his legs crossed.

"Dr. Drudger should be back within the week. Your load will lessen soon."

That was encouraging. Cale Drudger was another strange individual but he was far from incompetent. "Thank you, sir."

"So, Mr. Westenfluss, how have you been? Other than working to death, that is." He took a drink.

Heine took a drink too. "I'm doing alright. It's taking a bit longer for my roommate to adjust to our new apartment than I thought it would."

"You said he's blind, am I right?"

"Yes, sir. Was on the wrong end of an explosion in the war."

Durandal nodded, his lips set in a frown. "So unfortunate. And how old is he?"

"My age, sir. Nineteen."

"So young." Durandal trailed off as he drank again. "He has no family to take care of him?"

"He won't accept any help. He's a bit of a mechanical genius and wants to fix his eyesight himself. Can't tell if he's stupid or stubborn."

Durandal smiled at that, his genuine grin that gave Heine the shivers. "Stubborn, he sounds like to me. A very driven individual."

Heine merely nodded in agreement, not wanting to dive further into personal information than he needed to. "And how are you doing, sir? I know why I'm here so late, but what brings you here?"

"Believe it or not, I just got done with a date."

"I believe it, but why did you end up here?"

He sighed, pausing to take another drink. "I've been dating her for almost two years now and we've finally come to an impasse, I'm afraid."

"How so? If you don't mind me asking, sir," Heine added quickly, but there was really no need.

"She's gotten onto the topic of children and—well—our views are a bit different."

"You don't want children, sir?"

"On the contrary there is a young…" he paused and Heine really didn't know why, but he continued a moment later as if it didn't mean anything. "A young boy whom I consider a son to me, but lately—it's just—" He stopped with a defeated sigh and gave a different smile that time. A shy one. "Would you call me weak if I merely said, 'It's complicated'?"

"Not at all, sir. Every person is entitled to his—or her—own thoughts."

"Thank you."

"Is that why you're here and not with her?"

He nodded and the two sat in silence for a while before Heine's phone went off. Both looked at it simultaneously.

It read: Lexi.

"Meh, I'll call her back," Heine responded and reached over to ignore the call, but Durandal interrupted.

"No, please pick it up. We shouldn't make two females mad today." Heine found the comment both amusing and peculiar. What was even stranger was his smile. It was his common "good guy" smile, but when he brought the cup to his lips, it dipped into a more sinister grin.

Or maybe his soldier sense was being too jumpy again.

"Hey, Pip," Heine said, using her codename just in case, but somehow it already felt as if the shit had hit the fan.

* * *

_CE 72 February 9: Orb_

Lexi put the phone down, Namarra noticing how she took an extra second to stare at the black screen. "What's up?"

"He called me Piper. Do you think he's in trouble?"

"Heine? Nah." Namarra shook her head and went back to putting away the weapons. They had just installed the fake bookshelf that opened to their armory and she was excited to start placing the guns inside. "He's probably so sleep deprived he forgot your real name."

"Thanks, that makes me feel so much better."

"C'mon, let's do some organizing! That'll make you feel better."

"Make me feel better? Or you?" Lexi rolled her eyes and started taking her 9mm apart, getting it ready to be cleaned.

"Both of us!" Namarra shouted, and Lexi couldn't help the smile.

Only they could fully enjoy putting guns away at 3:00AM.

* * *

_CE 72 February 14: Space_

"Why are you so tense?" Yzak asked, swishing the wine around in his glass. He had just moved into his new apartment that morning and with a little help from his friends (Lexi and Namarra included) they managed to shove all the boxes to the corner and set up the kitchen table, pots and pans, and even stock the fridge. The rest was work for later, but Lexi really didn't understand why until he pulled her aside just as everyone was leaving to ask her to come over for dinner. The first words out of her mouth were probably not the most appropriate—"You cook?"—but, in the end, she had agreed with a shrug. And there she was, sitting on a box (because the chairs won't be coming in until the end of the week) with candles, flowers, and an excellent meal spread out on the plate in front of her. If it wasn't for the fact that she had obviously been asked on a date, she might have said he invited her to a fire death trap with all the cob webs hanging down near the candles lit around the room.

"Hm?" Lexi asked, swishing her wine around much the same way.

"Your eyes keep looking around the room. We both know where all the exits are—I know the windows are quite unnerving without curtains, but I'll get shades tomorrow—and I did a sweep before you got here, so relax."

_If only you used an actual broom_, she thought, but mentally scolded herself for being so petty.

"The lights will be on tomorrow. Besides, I thought candlelight would be more—" He paused, taking a sip as he thought of the appropriate word.

"Romantic?" Lexi finished for him and he shrugged. "Really? As a soldier you see candles as romantic? I see them as potential fire hazards and cause enough shadows to cover a crouching human if needed."

Yzak sighed. "Seriously, just turn your brain off for one night."

"That's your response? I didn't even know we were dating until this offer came up."

"I thought I'd give it a try."

"On Valentine's Day? With candles in an unfurnished apartment with no curtains?"

"The guys put me up to it."

"Really? And that's your other reason? The boys made me do it?" She rolled her eyes and put the glass back down on the table. "For trying to go for a romantic kind of setting you really don't have the talking finesse to go with it."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She rolled her eyes again, watching him narrow his and wanting to slug him for it. Why the hell was he getting mad?

"Can't you just be a little grateful?" Yzak went on. "I cooked you a great meal, poured you some wine—that you're not even drinking, by the way—and even gave you flowers at the door. What more do you want from me? Geez, I try to do something nice."

She let him grumble, turning away and looking at the scattered boxes in the corner. The apartment was big for a soldier just starting out, but his mom was on the Council. It was spacious, had two bathrooms and three bedrooms with a kitchen the same size as the living room. The dining room could use a little expanding, but with that much room to maneuver in the kitchen, the apartment was definitely worth it. She didn't even want to get into how small the kitchen was in the apartment she shared with Namarra. As soon as he unpacked all of his things, she knew it would be the next hang out joint, but with so much room, it would be worth the risk of walking into the building.

Or maybe that was the real reason she was being so testy. Yzak had not only found a great apartment, but most of his military colleagues were in the building as well. That meant ranks ranging from Private all the way up to Commander and with that much ZAFT personnel running around, someone was bound to recognize her. After the scare on Mendel, she knew she was a bit more popular than she had originally thought and with Yzak living in a ZAFT military cesspool she was basically the sheep trying to blend in with the wolves. One wrong move and the canines would realize she wasn't who she said she was. And that could just mean getting Yzak so drunk his lips started getting loose.

"You're tearing up the napkin," Yzak said, pulling her out of her thoughts.

All of that depended on how serious Yzak was about this date.

"Sorry."

"C'mon, why are you so nervous?"

And he couldn't even imagine how much a relationship would scare the shit out of her.

Finally, Lexi sighed, deciding he should get some kind of answer. "Never been on a date on Valentine's Day, to be honest."

He didn't look surprised and she wasn't sure whether she should have been offended or not. "Well, the military can do that to you."

"I take it you have then?"

He shrugged, telling her nothing. "I was a bit surprised you said, yes, mainly because you don't seem like a Valentine's Day person." He had paused before he said the holiday, probably debating whether to say "a date" or "a Valentine's Day kind of person."

"Because I don't like pink?"

"Because you're not into anything fluffy or overrated."

"So, you think Valentine's Day is overrated?"

He shrugged again. "I haven't had a good enough one to have me think otherwise."

"Ah," was her only response and they sank into silence once again. It was around that same time that Yzak started chugging his wine, finishing off his glass a bit faster than Lexi thought healthy.

After taking the last drink, he slammed the glass down on the table and stared at her hard, his eyes starting to get their glossy overlay. "I think we should date."

"Clearly."

"I mean, think about it. We hang out all the time and—well—the guys have already started calling you my girlfriend."

"Very sensible reasons," she grumbled, watching him carefully.

"And you're hot."

Her eye twitched at that.

"And Dearka bet me that I couldn't get you to date me before he got Miriallia to date him. So, what d'ya think?"

"Ah," was her response again, touching the glass to her lips. Based on those reasons, she probably shouldn't have even considered the offer, but despite the fact that many people said being buzzed was not a liable excuse for being obnoxious, his blabbering was almost endearing. Besides, what did she honestly expect from him? Tact? Okay, maybe a little.

"So, what do you win from this bet?"

"A year of free first rounds."

Impressive. "And you know you can never call me Lexi in public, right?"

"Have I failed you yet?"

Yes, but she didn't feel the need to bring up that incident at that moment. "And you know I have a busy schedule?"

"For fuck's sake would you just say yes?"

Lexi smirked, downed the rest of her wine and shook out the warmth that sped down her spine. "What the hell."

Yes, the words of a promising romance.

* * *

_**A/N:**_Hey all, so this is my last posted chapter before I leave for school in the UK! Can't decide whether my stomach's gurgling because of excitement or terror, but either way I leave in two days! I have a feeling my chapters are going to be even slower than usual thanks to my great idea of getting my Masters Degree in a foreign country. O.o I'll still be chipping away at this because I can never go long before I have to look at my SEED stories.

So, who else is excited Lexi and Yzak are getting together? Who called it? I'm pretty sure most of my fanbase from _Waltz_ wanted them together and here ya go, I delivered. :P There's gonna be quite a bit of drama between the two (if you couldn't tell by the Valentine's date) but I'l sure they'll work it out. ;)

And I thought I'd bring Durandal back in mainly because he's about to become a huge character in the SEED universe as we slowly move towards Destiny. And poor Heine has to deal with him.

Sean and Noah are my two newest reoccurring characters. They're actually based off of two good friends of mine from this site so if it looks like a good idea, let me know and I can throw you/your character into the mix!

As for this chapter, what did you think? I can tell my fanbase dropped off dramatically from _Waltz_ which should be expected, I guess. I just feel a bit sad about it. :( Anyway, please drop a review and tell me what you think so far. This story is basically free-for-all kind of story because I don't really have a timeline besides a few main points I really need to hit. Please, give me some feedback!

Special shoutout/thanks to my beta this chapter, _Death-Scimitar_. She had to do another alone and did a fantastic job! I'm gonna miss her so much when I'm away!

* * *

_**Corrections to the**** Narrative:**_

Nothing I can really think of at the moment. At least other than the little twists I've put in for my own story benefit.

* * *

_**Questions/Gripes:**_

_OrangeP47: _Yes, this is why I'm not good with anything technical. I'm sure I could just change it really quick because it wouldn't change much in the course of the fight. Thanks for noting it! Loire is actually from Final Fantasy. Brownie points to anyone who can figure it out!

_QuietOne: _You're new to my universe and won the chance for a character in the story! I know we've already been talking about it, so I'll keep you posted as to when I plan on fitting her in. Thanks again for the review!

* * *

Thank you everyone who read my first chapter and I hope you enjoyed this one enough to come back to the next one too!

_Strata_


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